Crystal Palace - 1 (Rodger 67.)
Crewe Alexandra - 1 (Rivers 84.)

The season was once more upon us, and with the Club still being in Administration we found ourselves in the unenviable position of being unable to buy, or even "borrow", any players to kick off the new term. The major problem with this was that Kevin Miller walked out on the Club, Fraser Digby was injured, and we were getting very low on goalkeeping stocks. Young Matthew Gregg was waiting in the wings, but it was Fraser that took the field, Steve Coppell's thoughts being that he wanted the experienced player in goal for the opening match of the season.

The game started slowly, with very few chances being created at either end, and it took almost half an hour before the first real chance came on goal. Kenny Lunt found John Grant, and with just Fraser to beat, he managed to put his shot wide. Steve's gamble had obviously paid off. The reply from Palace came when Nick Rizzo put in an inch perfect cross, but Lee Bradbury was just unable to reach it. Crewe came back with Grant's header floating just wide, and finally when it looked as though all would be square at the break Clinton Morrison managed to break away, and would have scored had he not been held back. The referee, fortunately, spotted the infringement, and Lee Bradbury stepped up to take the penalty. Much to the home fans bewilderment Jason Kearton was equal to the task, and though he did not manage to hang on to the ball he did manage to save it from going across the line. Bradbury was the first to recover, but though he put the ball in the back of the net, another infringement saw the "goal" being disallowed, so we did indeed go to the break all locked up at 0-0.

The second half brought a lot of chances from the visitors, with Palace appearing content just to soak up the pressure. A goalmouth melee which seemed to involve half the Palace side having a shot at goal finally resulted in Simon Rodger driving the ball low and hard past Kearton to open our scoring for this season. Welcome back, Simon! Just when it looked as though we might somehow sneak all three points Neil Sorvel sent in a great pass to Mark Rivers, who gave Fraser no chance with a well executed shot. Back on level terms the side put a lot more effort into the closing stages of the match, but despite good chances to Bradbury and Dave Tuttle, the end came too soon, and we had to be happy with a point for our efforts.

Until such time as we exit this period of Administration we will be unable to get any new players, so let's hope that we do not suffer too many injury and/or suspension problems.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Fraser Digby, Jamie Smith, Dean Austin, Hayden Mullins, Andy Linighan (Dave Tuttle 77), Andrew Frampton, Wayne Carlisle, Nick Rizzo (Stephen Evans 61), Simon Rodger, Lee Bradbury, Clinton Morrison.

Crewe Alexandra: : Jason Kearton, David Wright, Shaun Smith, Steve MacAuley, Colin Little, Phil Charnock (Mark Rivers 71), Rodney Jack, Kenny Lunt, Lee Unsworth (Wright S 67), Neil Sorvel, John Grant.

Attendance: 13,664

Referee: Mr K.A. Kirksby (Sheffield)