Crystal Palace - 1 (Morrison 27.)
Manchester City - 1 (Taylor R 8.)

Joe Royle brought the high-flying Blues to Selhurst Park, looking for a boost into the automatic promotion spots. They found it, but only by courtesy of Ipswich going down to Portsmouth at Portman Road. The point that we gained from the match may yet prove critical as the bottom of the table gets closer and closer to us. At the same time, based on this performance, the Palace faithful will be eagerly awaiting the visit of Bolton on Tuesday night.

A season's best crowd of 21,000 plus flocked to Selhurst Park, though the numbers were somewhat swelled by an estimated 5,000 City supporters. The man in charge, Mr Lynch, signalled time on, and the match got underway at a frenetic pace. The early minutes were all City, with Mark Kennedy looking the most likely to open the scoring. His shot at goal in the first minute went marginally wide of the post, and then Fraser Digby was forced to pull off a great save from his next shot. His third shot rebounded off the post, and Danny Tiatto got on to the end of the rebound, passed to Robert Taylor, who duly headed home.

Only eight minutes gone, and we were already 1-0 down.

The goal did, however, spark some life into the Palace players, and Simon Rodger was the first to test out Nicky Weaver in goal. His shot was well saved. Fan Zhiyi took a 25-yard free kick, which was just tipped over the bar by the keeper, and then a shot from Wayne Carlisle was well saved to once again deny us a share of the spoils.

Approaching the half hour mark a corner was again conceded by City. Rodger fired the ball into a crowded goalmouth area and the ball appeared to come off the back of one of the defenders. As usual in these situations Clinton Morrison was on hand at the far post, and a simple flick of the head was all that was required to bring the scores level.

The remainder of the first half was played out with end-to-end football, neither side gaining the advantage.

The second half brought more of the same action, with both sides looking for the winner. A shot by Carlisle appeared headed for the back of the net, but it went wide, then Tiatto fired a weak shot straight to Digby. With the match appearing to be meandering towards a tame ending Palace put in a great finale.

During a period of just 60 seconds, and with only minutes on the clock, Weaver was forced to make three great saves. Mikael Forssell was denied twice and Leon McKenzie once in a match saving performance by the visiting keeper, and like many other high-flying teams City had to be content travelling home with just one point.

That Palace could have taken all three is beyond doubt, for Fraser had very little to do at the other end, but a point at this time is more than welcome. Palace would hardly make life easy for us long suffering supporters by ensuring that we were safe from relegation too soon before the end of the season, would they?

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Fraser Digby, Dean Austin, Fan Zhiyi, Andy Linighan, Ashley Cole, Wayne Carlisle, Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Leon McKenzie, Mikael Forssell, Clinton Morrison.

Substitutes not used: David Woozley, Nick Rizzo, Andrew Martin, Steve Mautone, Sean Hankin.

Manchester City: Nicky Weaver, Richard Edghill, Gerard Wiekens, Richard Jobson, Danny Granville (Sean Wright-Phillips 72), Mark Kennedy, Jeff Whitley, Jamie Pollock, Danny Tiatto, Lee Peacock, Robert Taylor.

Substitutes not used: Tommy Wright, Kevin Horlock, Paul Dickov, Tony Grant.

Attendance: 21,052

Referee: Mr K M Lynch (Kirk Hammerton).