Crystal Palace - 1 (Rowett og 90.)
Birmingham City - 1 (Furlong pen 49.)

Perhaps this was a first look at the Palace team for the new millennium? With a team featuring so many of the youngsters could this be the team of the future? Suffice it to say that they played very well. Now, if only we can combine last year's away form with this year's home form, perhaps next season might be the first of many good seasons to come.

Following the kick off the first real attempt on goal came at the five minute mark when Jamie Fullarton saw his shot deflected for a corner. Just two minutes later Wayne Carlisle had the ball in the back of the net, but he was adjudged offside. A series of free kicks and throw-ins followed for Palace, with Birmingham appearing not to be playing in the same game. At about the half hour mark Lee Bradbury got clear, but the shot was well stopped by the keeper Kevin Poole. Shortly after Leon McKenzie hit the ball over the bar, then Bradbury and McKenzie were in the act, Poole having a torrid time. That he kept a clean sheet to the half time break shows what a good keeper he is, and why Birmingham are near the top of the table. The first half had seen Palace make all the running, but somehow they had not managed to score, surely the next half would bring better things?

The second half started somewhat spectacularly when with only a couple of minutes gone Craig Moore and Paul Furlong tangled just inside the area, and Furlong fell over. The referee immediately pointed to the spot, and Furlong picked himself up to convert the opportunity, and score his 12th goal of the season. Suddenly we were 1-0 down, totally against the run of play. This had a positive effect, but the effect was on Birmingham, who now started to play much more like the team looking for promotion. Midway through the half Kevin Miller kicked a very long ball upfield which found Lee Bradbury, who got clear of the defence. With only the keeper to beat he somehow managed to put the ball over the top. Shortly after Birmingham won their first corner of the match, which shows the domination we had had on the pitch. With 75 minutes of the match gone Martin Grainger flicked on a great pass to Furlong, who somehow managed to miss the goal from fully one yard out! Had he scored the game would surely have been over. A couple of quick substitutions were made by Palace, one of which was to prove crucial later in the match. A bit of end to end play saw a header by Craig Moore go straight to the keeper, and then Smith miss hit a kick at goal. A foul by Michael Johnson on Bradbury went unnoticed by the officials, and it looked as though time was going to beat us. A final corner to Palace was met by Andy Linighan who headed the ball wide when everyone thought that it would be easier to put it in the back of the net. Injury time was upon us when one last effort saw Steve Evans challenging for the ball. Grainger and Gary Rowett only managed to get tangled up with each other, and it was Rowett who headed the ball that looped over the keepers head and into the net. Finally it was 1-1. There was insufficient time for the match to even restart, and we had to be content with a share of the spoils. Though this may feel as if we were robbed of two points, it was certainly better than allowing Brum to go away with all the points, they certainly did not deserve that based on their showing.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Kevin Miller, Jamie Smith, Gordan Petric, Jamie Fullarton, Craig Moore, Andy Linighan, Craig Foster (Steven Thomson 79), Hayden Mullins, Lee Bradbury, Leon McKenzie (Steve Evans 83), Wayne Carlisle.
Not Used: David Woozley.

Birmingham City: Kevin Poole, Gary Rowett, Simon Charlton, Steve Robinson, Gary Ablett (Martin Grainger 24), Michael Johnson, John McCarthy, Dele Adebola (Bryan Hughes 46), Paul Furlong, Martin O'Connor, Peter Ndlovu (Nicky Forster 85).
Not Used: None.

Attendance: 15,996
Referee: Mr C R Wilkes (Gloucester).