Manchester United - 2 (Saha 22. Richardson 39.)
Crystal Palace - 0
The first action of this match saw Gary Borrowdale send in a cross, but the ball was overhit, and went straight out of play, leaving Tim Howard the simple task of taking a goal kick. Shaun Derry was guilty of an accidental handball, but the resulting free kick led to no advantage to United, and then we had to wait until about the ten-minute mark before Eric Djemba-Djemba fouled Shaun leading to our first free kick. Gary sent in the cross, but it was John O'Shea who got in the way, and effected the clearance. A series of niggling fouls followed before Sandor Torghelle got a shot on goal, but he placed the ball straight at the keeper.
A corner to United followed, and as the ball was fired in by Quinton Fortune it was Jose Kleberson who sent it back the other way. Fortunately Darren Powell was on hand to make the clearance, and from this we saw Tom Soares put a cross in on goal, O'Shea again making the clearance. Back at the other end of the park though, disaster struck as Fortune got a cross in, and Louis Saha was given sufficient time to chest the ball down and fire it into the back of the net from just a few yards out.
Saha should really have doubled the score just a minute or two later as he dragged his shot wide of the post, and moments later Sandor saw his shot blocked by Wes Brown, conceding a corner to Palace. Shaun played in this set piece, but again Brown got in the way, clearing the danger for the home defence. Darren Fletcher tried a cross into our area, the clearance this time coming from Mark Hudson, and then Phil Neville sent in a beautiful cross that Saha managed to head wide of the mark, fortunately for Palace.
Kieran Richardson sent in another cross that Saha fired goalwards, this time Mark managing to get in the way, before Djemba-Djemba got on the end of a Darren Fletcher cross, his effort missing the right hand post by just a small margin. Another corner to United was plucked out of the air by Julian Speroni, once again back in the Palace goal, but moments later Djemba-Djemba sent the ball in from the right hand side of the field, and youngster Richardson was on hand to simply stroke the ball into the back of the net, to effectively put the game beyond the reach of the Palace players. 2-0 is a very big gap at this level.
There was little further action, and only about a minute of time added on to the first half, and as the players came off for the break one can only imagine what might have been going through the mind of Iain Dowie. Both goals should never have been allowed to happen, but the dearth of chances at the other end would have been worrying him somewhat, and it was therefore no real surprise that Australian Anthony Danze was replaced at the start of the second half by the attack minded Vassilios Lakis.
Saha tried a shot that was blocked by Tom, and the following corner saw Kleberson try a shot that was well saved by Julian. Sandor was caught offside before Vassilios suffered the identical fate, easing any perceived pressure that Palace might have been able to inflict on the United side, and shortly after Mark was booked for unsporting behaviour following a foul on David Bellion. Mikele Leigertwood tried a cross into the goalmouth area, but once again the Palace attack was missing, and the ball simply ran out for a goal kick.
Finally Dougie Freedman came into the game, though he had been there all the time, but never really in the action. He attempted a shot on goal that the keeper could only parry, and Vassilios got on the end of the ball, sending a shot in that had to be cleared by Brown, conceding a corner. Shaun sent this in, and Darren met it with a powerful header that unfortunately went just over the top of the bar.
Bellion tried a shot that missed to the left of the upright, and then Danny Butterfield fired a shot goalwards from fully 35 yards out that still managed to fly over the top of the bar. Another corner to United was cleared by the Palace defence, and as the ball was played back into our area Mark made the clearance, albeit at the expense of another corner. This time Neville sent in the cross, and it was Dougie who was back helping out the defence that cleared the ball from our danger area.
Another cross into our area was cleared by Darren before Sandor got a cross in at their end of the park, the clearance coming from Brown, again at the expense of a corner. Shaun took this, and it was Vassilios who fired the shot towards goal, his attempt missing down the right hand channel. Palace decided to make a second change, this time taking off Sandor and bringing on Ivan Kaviedes, his first attempt on goal missing, once again going wide of the mark.
Saha had a chance, his shot being blocked by Darren, and the corner that followed was well cleared by Mark, as United looked to close the game out. Palace made their final change of the evening with Danny being replaced by Neil Shipperley, making a welcome return to the side, but as could be seen from the line-up now we were in all out attacking mode.
A shot by Kleberson was fantastically saved by Julian as he tipped it round the post, and as the corner led to a simple goal kick United decided on a double change, replacing Richardson and Kleberson with Chris Eagles (why isn't he playing for Palace?) and Jonathan Spector. Djemba-Djemba tried a shot that was well caught by Julian, and if any blame had been placed on his shoulders for the first half goals, he had certainly made up for it with two wonderful saves in the last few minutes.
Neil got a shot away that went wide of the mark and Fortune replied at the other end, his chance also going wide. United made their final change as Giuseppe Rossi replaced Bellion, and moments later Neil got his second shot on goal, but Howard reacted well, and caught the ball as it looked to sail into the back of the goalmouth. A final corner to United saw Spector miss a chance, his effort going wide once again, and the game closed with little fanfare, and a long journey home for the Palace faithful.
Still, we will now all look forward to a meeting with Liverpool at Anfield this coming Saturday, and we will not be looking for just a single point, we can hopefully go home with all three.
Colin Pryce
Manchester United: Tim Howard, Wes Brown, Phil Neville, John O'Shea, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Darren Fletcher, Quinton Fortune, Jose Kleberson (Jonathan Spector 79), Kieran Richardson (Chris Eagles 79), David Bellion (Giuseppe Rossi 86), Louis Saha.
Substitutes not used: Lopez Ricardo, Floribert Ngalula.
Crystal Palace: Julian Speroni, Danny Butterfield (Neil Shipperley 77), Mark Hudson, Mikele Leigertwood, Darren Powell, Gary Borrowdale, Anthony Danze (Vassilios Lakis 45), Shaun Derry, Tom Soares, Dougie Freedman, Sandor Torghelle (Ivan Kaviedes 69).
Substitutes not used: Gabor Kiraly, Emmerson Boyce.
Attendance: 48,891
Referee: Mr S Dunn