Crystal Palace - 0
Portsmouth - 0
The match got underway, and the first forward move was when Tommy Black floated a pass into the box; unfortunately there were no Palace men in the area to take advantage of it. In return Shaun Cooper made his way into the Palace area, and though Matt Clarke did well to come out of his area the ball came off the keeper and flew just wide of the post. A free kick following a foul on Clinton Morrison saw Danny Granville make good ground, and then once again pass the ball into a deserted goalmouth. Wherever have our strikers gone?
Dougie Freedman then got in a good cross to Clinton, but Dave Beasant in the opposition goal managed to get to the ball before the advancing striker. More attacking moves by Palace saw Clinton and Danny both get into good positions, but their passes went astray. Aki Riihilahti and Tommy both combined well, but again the move broke down, this time due to an offside decision.
Dougie then got a good ball through to Clinton, but he miss-hit the strike, and Tommy was not able to get on the end of the rebound. Finally a shot on target from Clinton was well dealt with by Beasant, but Palace did manage to win a corner. Julian Gray fired in the corner shot, but Beasant again was on hand to simply punch the ball away to safety.
Cooper then got clear at our end of the pitch, but his shot was so poorly hit that it could not really count as a chance at all. Julian and Hayden Mullins then combined well, before the ball was once again floated into the centre, where Tommy rose to head the ball just over the top of the bar.
Portsmouth finally managed to get free, but a good save from Matt kept the danger at bay. Clinton got the ball delivered to him in the box, and though he was not well placed to make a strike he fed the ball to Jamie Smith, whose shot went over the top, and away to safety for the visitors.
Lewis Buxton just managed to get to the ball before Clinton could strike from a promising looking position, and then Courtney Pitt and Nigel Quashie nearly caught Palace asleep at the back, Shaun Murphy heading the ball behind for a corner. The corner was duly cleared, and Clinton made a good run before passing the ball to an advancing Dougie, but he fired his shot just wide, and the scores remained level.
This about summed up the "action" for the first half, and we all awaited the players for the second half, and hopefully a goal.
A handball early on saw a free kick to Palace, but Julian saw his shot blocked, and then Danny made a rare attack on the goalmouth, this time Beasant superbly saved the shot. If he can shoot like that - well, we want to see more of that Danny. Julian made a good strike on goal, but the deflection off Linvoy Primus did not fool Beasant, and he tipped the ball around the post for a corner. Julian and Tommy came close from the resulting corner, but it was forced away again by the defence for another corner, which was simply wasted.
Clinton was caught offside once again before Aki fired a good looking shot which unfortunately went straight over the top of the bar, with the keeper simply watching the proceedings. Dougie's next effort was forced behind for yet another corner. A free kick was nearly curled into the top corner of the net by Julian, in an attempt to repeat his strike when he was successful the other day.
Ade Akinbiyi came on, for Julian, but despite immediately putting the opposition under pressure he did not really make a great impression on proceedings. Clinton was brought down in the box by Buxton, but the referee, who was along way away from the action, simply waved play on. Tommy saw a shot hacked away for a corner, which found Ade, but his header was well cleared by the defence.
Despite a couple of late corners to Palace they were starting to look less and less like scoring, and that duly proved to be the case. The final whistle went, and the players trooped off the field, somehow wondering how they had failed to put the ball in the back of the net. Palace had, by far, the best of the chances, but their finishing proved woeful on this particular evening. The defence, of course, was far better than of late, and a clean sheet was at least kept by the side. More of that is required, but we desperately need the attack to fire a few shots in, commencing with the home fixture on Saturday against Watford.
Colin Pryce
Crystal Palace: Matt Clarke, Dean Austin, Hayden Mullins, Dougie Freedman, Clinton Morrison, Tommy Black, Aki Riihilahti, Julian Gray (Ade Akinbiyi 79), Shaun Murphy, Danny Granville, Curtis Fleming (Jamie Smith 28).
Substitutes not used: Alex Kolinko, Steve Thomson, Jovan Kirovski.
Portsmouth: Dave Beasant, Jamie Vincent, Shaun Derry, Peter Crouch, Nigel Quashie, Courtney Pitt (Garry Brady 72), Tom Curtis, David Waterman, Linvoy Primus, Lewis Buxton, Shaun Cooper (Neil Barrett 83).
Substitutes not used: Christopher Tardif, Rowan Vine, Leonardo Biagini.
Attendance: 15,915
Referee: Mr P Joslin (Newark)