Crystal Palace - 2 (Freedman 31. Kirovski 45.)
Manchester City - 1 (Goater 68.)

The kick off was delayed by 15 minutes, due to fans being unable to get to the ground because of the Christmas shoppers, but eventually Shaun Goater got things underway. Palace won the first corner of the match, but the cross was easily cleared by the City defence. A move forward almost floundered, but Julian Gray managed to keep the ball in play. The ball found Aki Riihilahti, whose through-ball for Jovan Kirovski was well met, the result seeing the ball sail over the top of the bar. Darren Huckerby then looked dangerous, but the chance was well dealt with by Christian Edwards.

Simon Rodger teamed well with Julian, but their ball upfield caused Dougie Freedman to be offside. Clinton Morrison then put ex-Palace player Carlo Nash under pressure. His clearance shot straight into the stands, and the resultant throw found Aki whose shot went wide of the mark. Ali Benarbia then put a shot wide of our goal, just to remind us that there, indeed, two sides in this contest.

As usual the match then settled into a bit of end-to-end play, with neither side really showing any tendency to take the initiative. Jamie Smith attempted a shot from well out, but it was well blocked by the defence. Both sides seemed to lack the finishing ability to really stamp their authority on the match. They also seemed to favour defence to attack, and the few forays into "enemy" territory really did little to trouble the opposition sides.

Goater then managed to spring the offside trap, but the resulting shot from his namesake, Shaun Wright-Phillips, was very poor and gave Alex Kolinko in goal little to defend. Dougie then came a cropper in the box, but the referee ruled, correctly I think, that there was no foul and the game went on.

Aki was then called on to head the ball behind, but the resulting corner kick was sent over the top by a despairing Lucien Mettomo. Kit Symons then found Clinton in space, but again the chance was wasted, with Goater coming straight back up the field of play to blast a shot over the top.

A free kick was then awarded to Palace, with Hayden Mullins floating the ball through to Dougie in yards of space. He simply bided his moment, then lifted the ball over the top of the advancing Nash, and suddenly we were 1-0 up. Now, that's more like it!

City attempted to hit straight back, but Danny Tiatto was ruled offside when he was clear through on goal. Once again the game settled into an end-to-end affair, with Kit going closest for a while, his header going just wide of the net.

Palace then put on a little more pressure, and finally this told on the City defence. Right on half time Jovan headed the ball down, and though Nash claimed to have stopped it going over the line, the goal stood.

So, 2-0 right on the break, and though City must have been sorely disappointed, the Palace faithful were ecstatic at the great showing from the team thus far. Not only had the team scored twice, but the visitors had not really had a memorable shot on goal for the entire first half proceedings.

The second half was started for Palace by Aki and Clinton, but it fairly soon became a little obvious that Palace were going to try to sit on their lead, and soak up the pressure. Always a dangerous ploy, though often you can catch the opposition on the break that way. Dougie almost did just that, but a foul at the end of his run saw the whole effort fall apart. A couple of corners to Palace did not add to the scoreline.

Kevin Horlock got the ball into our area once again, and though Alex did well to parry the shot from Wright-Phillips the ball bounced neatly for Goater who made no mistake with his volley to wrest the score back to 2-1 and force the game wide open. From this point on City maintained the pressure on the Palace goal, and if it had not been for a good mixture of defence and keeping we would surely have cracked under the pressure.

With only a few minutes to go it looked certain City would score, but Alex pulled off a brilliant save to keep Palace ahead in the game. To add to the agony three minutes of injury time was added to the end of the match, though it must be noted that substitute Steve Kabba came closest to scoring during those few minutes, with Nash pulling off a good save in a one-on-one situation.

So Palace survived, the win held them firm in 6th place in the table, and we all looked forward to crunch match against Brum.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Christian Edwards, Hayden Mullins, Kit Symons, Jamie Smith (Dean Austin 58), Julian Gray, Simon Rodger, Aki Riihilahti, Dougie Freedman, Jovan Kirovski (Steve Thomson 69), Clinton Morrison (Steve Kabba 76).

Substitutes not used: Lance Cronin, Tommy Black.

Manchester City: Carlo Nash, Richard Dunne, Lucien Mettomo, Ali Benarbia, Eyal Berkovic, Gerard Wiekens (Christian Negouai 64), Shaun Wright-Phillips, Danny Tiatto, Kevin Horlock, Shaun Goater, Darren Huckerby.

Substitutes not used: Nicky Weaver, Danny Granville, Paul Ritchie, Chris Killen.

Attendance: 22,080

Referee: Mr W Jordan (Tring)