Wolverhampton Wanderers - 0
Crystal Palace - 0

A defensive game was always on the cards for this match. Palace entered the game having been undefeated in their last nine games, and Wolves had extended their record to eight without defeat. A dour 0-0 draw was always the best bet for the result, though one can be sure that Wolves and Palace fans would all have been wishing for that odd goal that would give them 3 points.

Wolves would probably be ruing the loss of two points much more than Palace the morning after the match. To them it would be stalling their progress towards the Premiership, and realistically Palace would simply view it as another stepping stone towards a more successful season next year in the Nationwide Division One.

The teams lined up, and if their had been many more Palace and ex-Palace players on the pitch we might have been told to take a few players off . Kevin Muscat, Neil Emblen and Simon Osborn all took their place for the opposition, though Neil really was a Wolves man before he came to us. We simply had to hope that none of them would extend our shocking record against players that used to be on our books by letting them score.

The game got underway, and it did not take very long for the crowd to realise that this was going to be one of those games where the comparison of the defences was going to be the main talking point. The first man to get through either defence was Kevin Muscat, though Kevin Miller was more than equal to the task, and that took fully 20 minutes of the game. Dean Richards managed to get his head to a cross, but fired over the bar, and a sharp chance to Carl Robinson brought a good reaction from Miller. That, believe it or not, was about the sum total of the action in the first half, and we entered the break not having fired one shot in anger at the opposition goal.

Steve Coppell must be getting good at these talks at half time, for it was a far more positive Palace side that took the field for the second half. Leon McKenzie managed to get his head on the ball to a corner taken by Craig Foster, though the ball went narrowly wide. Even so it was Wolves that looked the more likely to break the deadlock, and only good defending, and a resolute Miller in goal kept them at bay. Substitute Steve Corica managed a run into the area, a neat move ending with Robinson failing to beat Miller at the second attempt. We actually managed, almost at the death, to "steal" the game when Fan Zhiyi went forward to a Dean Austin cross, though somehow he did not manage to connect with the ball.

So, 10 matches without a defeat - roll on Swindon next week!

Colin Pryce

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Mike Stowell, Kevin Muscat, Michael Gilkes (Lee Naylor 73), Steve Sedgley, Dean Richards, Keith Curle, Carl Robinson, Neil Emblen, Tore Andre Flo, David Connolly (Steve Corica 73), Simon Osborn.
Not Used: Mark Atkins.

Crystal Palace: Kevin Miller, Sun Jihai (Andrew Frampton 75), Gordan Petric, Dean Austin, David Woozley, Steve Thomson, Craig Foster, Fan Zhiyi, Leon McKenzie, Clinton Morrison, Hayden Mullins.
Not Used: Sagi Burton, Matthias Svensson.

Attendance: 23,643
Referee: Mr T Heilbron (Newton Aycliffe).