Stoke City - 1 (Iwelumo 85.)
Crystal Palace - 1 (Adebola 77.)
Stoke kicked off in this game, and a free kick to Palace, for a foul on Darren Powell, was totally wasted. A good period of possession for Palace still saw them looking fairly goal shy. A cross in from Curtis Fleming failed to find Dele Adebola in the centre, and it simply ended up with the ball up the other end of the pitch, with Jurgen Vandeurzen winning a free kick in reasonable proximity to our goal. The ball fortunately went straight into the waiting hands of Nik Michopoulos.
Darren then cleared the next forward move by Stoke. Tony Popovic then got the ball in to Dele, but the ball fell unkindly, and bounced safely away for a goal kick. Dougie Freedman set up Shaun Derry, but his shot went wide.
Peter Hoekstra and Andrew Cooke were then both caught offside. Hayden Mullins got the ball clear, and a cross aimed for Andy Johnson got caught in the high wind, and fell safely for the home team. The play then seemed to flow from end to end, without any real danger to either goal, and the most notable thing was Bjarni Gudjonsson being booked for taking a dive. A ball that was floated in led to Cooke taking a header at goal that went over the bar, and at the other end Dougie nearly got to a good ball, the keeper just beating him to it. Cooke was then booked, presumably for dissent, and then a cross in from Shaun found Dougie in acres of space, his header not connecting properly, and the ball going behind for a goal kick.
A cross in from AJ failed to find Dougie, and then Curtis got his name in the book for a foul on Hoekstra that seemed a little harsh. Gudjonsson blasted a free kick to Stoke over the bar, and the first half was rapidly coming to an end. James O'Connor managed to get free in our area, but his pass across the face of our goal found no Stoke player in attendance to simply tap the ball home. The ball then sailed into the Stoke area from a cross by Curtis, but both Dele and AJ had run too far forward to take advantage of the situation.
What looked like a handball in the area by Danny Granville was waved away by the referee - that certainly might have been a tricky situation; and a shot by O'Connor sailed over the top of the bar. Without further ado the half finished, and as the players trooped off we wondered if Trevor Francis really had "bottled" that half time pep talk from the Cheltenham game, and just maybe we could see six goals from Palace in the second half!
Palace kicked off the second stanza of play, and a corner for Stoke was well dealt with by Tony, heading the ball away to safety. Dele got clear in the attacking zone, but the defence did well to rob him of the ball at the crucial moment. Dele then tackled Peter Handyside, and his ball through to Dougie found AJ who forced a great save from Neil Cutler in the Stoke goal. An attempt at a kick over the head of an advancing Nik by Cooke failed to find the mark, and then Tony managed to get himself booked for tackle on Wayne Thomas.
The Stoke players wasted the resulting free kick, but then Vandeurzen played a feeble shot straight at Nik, when he really should have done so much better. The first replacement came, with Julian Gray taking the place of AJ. His first touch found Danny Butterfield, whose cross found the head of Dele, his shot going over the top. When will they learn he really prefers the ball at his feet? Gudjonsson got the ball in to Hoekstra, but his shot went wide, and at the other end of the pitch Palace finally won a corner. That too was wasted as the ball went straight into the hands of the keeper, and Palace made their second substitution, Shaun being replaced by Aki Riihilahti.
Aki was immediately in the action, clearing a dangerous cross, and then Stoke made a double substitution, Cooke and Vandeurzen making way for Chris Iwelumo and Mark Goodfellow. Danny B then found himself in front of goal, but the ball went wide for a goal kick, and then Dougie was well tackled by Siarhei Shtaniuk when he appeared to be clear through on goal. Our final substitution came about when Tommy Black came on for Danny B, and straight away, without him even touching the ball, Dougie got the ball to Dele and he fired home an unstoppable shot to put Palace in the lead.
A corner to the home side was wasted, and we returned the compliment at the other end. Tommy took the cross, and Aki fired the ball wide. The ball came back to the other end, and it was Iwelumo who was on hand with a simple shot to beat Nik to even up the score. Well, that was another lead that did not last too long. Curtis got a last moment tackle in on Goodfellow, who looked likely to steal all the points, and then Tommy went just too far with his run, when it might have made a difference had he passed the ball to someone.
A long-range shot from Goodfellow went over the top of the bar, and with three minutes of added on time Stoke won a corner. It was cleared by Curtis, but Stoke then won a free kick. The ball sailed through, and Nik did well to avert the danger, and though he set Hayden free up the middle of the park the final whistle came, and the match was all over.
Was it two points wasted, or a point gained? I'll let you decide.
Colin Pryce
Stoke City: Neil Cutler, Clive Clarke, Peter Handyside, Siarhei Shtaniuk, Wayne Thomas, Bjarni Gudjonsson, Karl Henry, Peter Hoekstra, James O'Connor, Jurgen Vandeurzen (Mark Goodfellow 72), Andrew Cooke (Chris Iwelumo 72).
Substitutes not used: Jani Viander, Petur Marteinsson, Lewis Neal.
Crystal Palace: Nikolaos Michopoulos, Curtis Fleming, Danny Granville, Hayden Mullins, Tony Popovic, Darren Powell, Danny Butterfield (Tommy Black 76), Shaun Derry (Aki Riihilahti 67), Dele Adebola, Dougie Freedman, Andrew Johnson Julian Gray 57).
Substitutes not used: Lance Cronin, Dean Austin.
Attendance: 14,214
Referee: Mr M Warren (West Midlands)