Wolverhampton Wanderers - 1 (Branch 60.)
Crystal Palace - 3 (Freedman 23. Morrison C 45. 72.)

With a draw against Bolton, and two superb wins under our belt Palace actually managed to go into this match as favourites, despite the fact that the game was being played at Molineux and Wolves were in fact ahead of us in the League. But there again, most teams are ahead of us in the League at the moment, albeit that things are starting to look up. Fortunately for the travelling Palace faithful the tag of "favourite" did not upset the players, and they duly went on to record their third straight win.

This match was more a matter of mistakes by the defence, rather than either team being far superior in attack, but Palace took the most of the advantages that were presented to them whilst Wolves missed a number of good chances to get back in the game.

This match was very much a matter of ex-players; they were everywhere! Dougie Freedman was sold by Palace to Wolves (and returned via Nottingham Forest), but Wolves boasted no fewer than four ex-Palace players, namely Kevin Muscat, George Ndah, Neil Emblen and Simon Osborn. Thank goodness the old blight of our ex-players returning to score against us did not hold up this time, though Dougie did score against them!

After a series of end to end play, in which both sides wasted good chances, Tommy Black put in a great through ball which Dougie latched on to, his drive sweeping past Michael Oakes in the home goal to make the scoreline 1-0 with just 23 minutes gone. Despite attempts at both ends of the ground it was finally Clinton Morrison that added to the scoring with just minutes left before the break. Making a determined run towards the goal he managed to get past Joleon Lescott in the area before unleashing a shot that gave the keeper little chance to do anything other than pick the ball out of the back of the net for the second time.

Half time arrived, and the Eagles were looking good, even if the home crowd hotly contested some of the refereeing decisions. For once we were keeping quiet, it was nice to see things going our way for once.

The second half got underway, and Wolves threw everything at the Palace defence. To our credit we managed to hang on until just on the hour, when George Ndah made a good run straight through the middle of the field before making an exquisite pass to Michael Branch, who made no mistake pushing the ball underneath a despairing dive from Alex Kolinko.

With one goal pulled back Wolves kept up the offensive, but Palace were still hitting them on the break. Just twelve minutes after they got their goal Palace were in again. A crazy mix-up in the goalmouth area saw a cross come in, Kevin Muscat get in the way of his keeper, and his simple tap down fell to Clinton who was on hand to once again slam the ball into the back of the net to restore our two goal advantage.

The match went on, but the will of the home side had been sapped.

Chances still fell to both sides, but in reality neither looked as if they were really going to threaten the keepers existence any further, and the game eventually petered out with Palace chalking up their third win in a row. With the team in this buoyant a mood they will certainly be looking forward to the first of two games at home to Tranmere next week.

Alan Smith will be quietly chuckling to himself these days. A matter of only a couple of weeks ago the supporters were calling for his head, but now the shoe is on the other foot, and everywhere we go the supporters of those teams are calling for the sacking of managers and officials. We just smile and keep our countenance. What a fickle lot we are!

We can only say well done Alan, and we now trust that the players have sufficient faith in your coaching methods to see this run of wins stretched forever.

Colin Pryce

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Michael Oakes, Kevin Muscat, Lee Naylor, Carl Robinson (Ryan Green 75), Ludovic Pollet (George Ndah 11), Neil Emblen, Darren Bazeley (Adam Proudlock 76), Simon Osborn, Michael Branch, Joleon Lescott, Tony Dinning.

Substitutes not used: Mike Stowell, Mohammed Camara.

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Dean Austin, Fan Zhiyi Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Dougie Freedman, Clinton Morrison, Tommy Black, Andrejs Rubins (Steve Thomson 63), Jamie Pollock, Steve Staunton.

Substitutes not used: Jamie Smith, Matthew Gregg, Wayne Carlisle, Craig Harrison.

Attendance: 17,658

Referee: Mr J P Robinson (Hull).