Crystal Palace - 0
Watford - 2 (Nielsen 45. Gayle 47.)
In reality we should all be well pleased with what appears to be a nice safe finish this season - it sure beats the dramas and traumas of last year!! We would all have happily settled for an uneventful 10th place finish this time round, and it appears as if this is just about where we will finish this campaign.
The match got underway courtesy of Dougie Freedman and Clinton Morrison, and it only took a couple of minutes before Dougie was caught offside, the ball floating through to him from a pass sent his way by Julian Gray. Tommy Smith then snuck through on our goal; a good stop by Matt Clarke averted the danger, but led to the first corner of the match. Matt dealt quite easily with the corner, and the game ebbed and flowed for the next few minutes.
Julian attempted a run up the left side of the field, where he usually plies his trade, but the wind was getting the better of his attempts to pass the ball into the centre, and both sides found it frustrating to pass the ball with any accuracy. Julian did get the ball through to Clinton, but his shot was deflected, and he was offside anyway, so the attempt counted for nothing.
Tommy Black managed to get free, passing the ball just behind Dougie, but his touch on the ball came back to Tommy, his shot being well smothered by Alec Chamberlain in the Watford goal. A corner followed for the visitors, but the attempt was wasted when the ball went straight behind for a goal kick. Julian then tried a shot from distance, which took all of Chamberlain's skills to keep out, and then Clinton nearly got a shot on goal, the ball getting caught up in his feet, stopping him from shooting.
Tommy curled in a good looking cross that Paul Robinson nearly turned into his own net, the keeper just managing to tip it over the top. As usual the corner was wasted by Palace, and they really must do some work on these set pieces very soon.
Stephen Glass and Smith combined well, but Smith's attempt at a shot was well foiled by Danny Granville who was having a fairly effective game in the heart of our defence. Clinton then really should have scored, his indecision costing a certain goal.
Dean Austin then got in the act, trying to head the ball homewards, but again the visiting keeper was equal to the task, and play continued on. Danny sent in a good looking free kick that found Shaun Murphy right in the goalmouth, but his header was woeful; with the net presenting a wonderful vista, he somehow managed to head the ball wide of the unprotected mark.
A back pass by the Watford defence led to all sorts of confusion when the keeper picked up the ball, with an indirect free kick being awarded about 6 yards out from goal. Once things were sorted out Dougie took the kick, the defence smothered the ball, and all remained square on the ledger. We really should have scored from a situation such as that.
Dougie put in a cross that swirled in the wind, but Chamberlain managed to hang on at the last moment, and then Dean had to be alert at our end of the pitch, keeping Smith out at the byline. Two corners in a row for Palace came to naught, and then shots from Tommy and Hayden Mullins met the same fate. Clinton got a cross in that was missed by the keeper, leaving Dougie the relatively simple task of tapping the ball into the back of the net, but somehow he contrived to miss. If this was an indication of our luck today, we may just as well have gone home at this time, but never being one to waste money, most stayed to the bitter end.
Allan Nielsen showed just how dangerous he could be, firing a shot over the top of the bar, and then during the three minutes added on for first half injuries he managed to get on the end of a cross from Glass and the ball was in the back of the net before anyone could blink. Once again we had conceded a goal right on the break - concentration is needed for the whole game.
Trevor would have had words to say at the break, one can be sure of that - though his speech would have changed a little following that last moment strike, and everyone supporting the home side would have been looking forward to the start of the second half. Of course, Palace rarely, if ever, manage to get back after conceding a goal, and the start of the second half was to underline this point.
Watford kicked off in the second stanza of play, and immediately won a corner. Although Hayden managed to initially avert the danger Gavin Mahon fired the ball back into the centre, and Marcus Gayle volleyed the ball straight into the back of the net to double the visitors' lead. The way we were playing there would be little chance of the team coming back from this situation.
Smith put a shot over the top for the visitors, and then Dougie once again managed to get himself caught offside. Ade Akinbiyi replaced Tommy, and though he managed to get through on goal almost immediately he was fouled by Filippo Galli, who got a yellow card for his trouble. The free kick, of course, managed to simply gain us a corner, and Watford again cleared the danger with little real worry to the defence.
Danny found Dougie in the goalmouth, but once again his shot was blocked, and then Clinton tried a shot from distance that caused the keeper little worry. Matt did well to come out of his area to avert any further danger for Palace, and then Steve Thomson came on to replace Danny. Dougie found Ade in the area, but much like the other two he was found to be offside, and the Hornets continued on their merry way.
A shot from Jamie was beaten out, at the expense of a corner, but of course we had made such little impact with corners that the visitors could well be forgiven if they were not concerned about conceding such events. They were perfectly correct, the corner was totally wasted, and Palace heads were starting to dip. A couple of quick corners to Watford kept our pulses racing, and despite a few last minute replacements very little action was witnessed on the field of play.
Dougie tried a final long range shot which went over the top, and it all about summed up Palace's efforts for the day - not quite good enough. With a trip to Manchester to face City next week the side will need to rapidly improve their finishing if they want to face the long journey home with some points in their pocket. Will we all be celebrating this time next week?
Colin Pryce
Crystal Palace: Matt Clarke, Dean Austin, Danny Granville (Steve Thomson 59), Hayden Mullins, Shaun Murphy, Jamie Smith (Ade Akinbiyi 53), Tommy Black, Julian Gray (Jovan Kirovski 83), Aki Riihilahti, Dougie Freedman, Clinton Morrison.
Substitutes not used: Alex Kolinko, Andrew Frampton.
Watford: Alec Chamberlain, Wayne Brown, Neil Cox, Filippo Galli, Paul Robinson, Stephen Glass (Gary Fisken 65), Micah Hyde, Gavin Mahon, Allan Nielsen (Lloyd Doyley 90), Marcus Gayle (Gifton Noel-Williams 88), Tommy Smith.
Substitutes not used: Espen Baardsen, Lee Cook.
Attendance: 16,817
Referee: Mr H Webb (Rotherham)