Bury - 0
Crystal Palace - 0

With the Club lurching from one disaster to another off the field, and finally going into the hands of the Administrator during the week, the most surprising aspect of the performances lately has been the fact that we have now drawn two and won one game in the last three. If we had managed to maintain this kind of form throughout the season we would be up there challenging for promotion instead of being in our current position.

Today's result was well fought for, and though Bury went in to the match as the favourites, with the draw being the long shot, the team performed very well to take the point home. One more point towards our salvation is always more than welcome. In fairness to our worthy opponents, they were prepared to scrap for everything they could get out of this match, and the result saw them stick their noses out of the relegation zone.

Lee Bradbury made his return to the side for the match, so this gave us the unusual look of a three man attack. If only one of them could have scored a goal! Ah well, perhaps they saved them for the match against Ipswich?

The match started on a pitch that was rather flatteringly described as poor; though others described it as boggy, and the weather as being poor. Bury were certainly looking the better side in the opening exchanges, and it was only Kevin Miller that was keeping us in the game. This was his second clean sheet in the last three games, though he did have a little help from his friends Craig Moore and Gordan Petric. Eventually the pressure that the home side were displaying had to tell, and when they got Miller out of position Chris Billy saw his shot hit the post. The next move, however, came from the visitors, when Leon McKenzie put in a good cross. Dave Tuttle, from fully 25 yards out, pounced on the ball, and only a good save from Dean Kiely saved the home side's blushes. Ex Palace player Andy Preece then came into his own, with two headed attempts failing to find the mark. The first went marginally wide of the post and the second was well dealt with by Miller. Still more action in the first half saw Lee Bradbury almost snatch the lead with a well directed shot that Kiely did well to handle, whilst at the other end Carl Serrant was denied once again by Miller and Nick Daws shot just wide.

The second half was tame by comparison, with very few efforts being made on goal at either end. The first chance came when Steve Thomson put in a great cross that Moore played on for Bradbury, whose shot went over the bar. A free kick was placed just wide by Petric, but to keep the honours even Adrian Littlejohn fired wide too. The last few minutes saw the Palace faithful willing Miller to hold out the attack, and one fluffed attempt nearly brought us undone, the defence cleaning up.

The match was over, and Palace had finally managed to notch up their first 0-0 draw of the season. It was interesting to note that once again there was not even a place on the bench for Sasa Curcic, he certainly seems to be out of favour with the management at the moment.

Colin Pryce

Bury: Dean Kiely, Dean West (Andrew Woodward 63), Carl Serrant, Nick Daws, Chris Lucketti, Steve Redmond, Chris Swailes, Paul Hall, Laurent D'Jaffo (Nigel Jemson 90), Chris Billy, Andy Preece (Adrian Littlejohn 76).
Not Used: None.

Crystal Palace: Kevin Miller, Jamie Smith, Gordan Petric, Sun Jihai (Andy Linighan 46), Craig Moore, David Tuttle, Steve Thomson, Leon McKenzie, Lee Bradbury, Clinton Morrison, Simon Rodger (Fan Zhiyi 63).
Not Used: Steve Evans.

Attendance: 4,334
Referee: Mr G.B. Frankland (Middlesbrough).