Birmingham City - 1 (Mooney 64.)
Crystal Palace - 0

This clash was eagerly awaited by all Palace fans, as it featured the "old" and the "new" for potentially both Trevor Francis and Steve Bruce. Steve Kabba got a starting role tonight, as Clinton Morrison was missing due to a slight injury. Alex Kolinko continued in goal for the injured Matt Clarke, and so the game kicked off in near freezing conditions. A series of good saves by Alex kept us in the match, and along with a good show in defence we were able to hold our own for a quite a while, without really looking all that threatening.

Dougie Freedman and Jovan Kirovski finally linked together well, but Jovan's shot was not well placed, and the opportunity was wasted. As Palace started to come more into the match, having weathered the initial Birmingham onslaught, Dougie fired a shot over the top of the bar. Alex then saved well following a Marcelo snap at goal, and at the other end Jovan fired once more over the top.

David Burrows then wasted a good opportunity to open the scoring. Simon Rodger got a pass in to young Steve, but once again the chance was not taken, and the game remained locked at 0-0. That was about the sum total of the action for the first half of play, and though Birmingham piled on the pressure early Palace responded later in the half. Neither side looked all that threatening, but both were given food for thought for the second stanza of play.

Early in the second half an attack from the home side saw Stan Lazaridis play Marcelo in well, but Alex read the play well, and stole the limelight from the attacking force. Steve and Jamie Smith combined well, but no opportunity presented itself, and then Lazaridis took a snap at goal from a long way out, and the ball kept rising as it sailed over the top.

End-to-end play as usual kept the crowd marginally entertained, until suddenly, with about half-an-hour to go Lazaridis was brought down by Christian Edwards, and the referee had little hesitation in pointing to the spot. Tommy Mooney stepped up and made no mistake, slotting the ball home, sending the home crowd into raptures. The goal seemed to fire up the side, and they pushed everything at Palace, but still we stood firm.

A further penalty shout was waved away by the ref, when it appeared that Kit Symons may have handled the ball, but the pressure was still mounting on the Palace side. Dougie did manage to get a run on goal, only to find that he had no support once he got there, and the chance was wasted once again. Lazaridis once again found Mooney, his shot being well saved by Alex, who really was having a good night with the exception of the penalty.

A couple of half-chances to Palace came to naught, and right at the death Hayden Mullins put a header wide that could have given us a point for the night, but really we were not deserving of even a single point, much as we would have liked one.

Ah well, roll on Watford next weekend.

Colin Pryce

Birmingham City: Ian Bennett, ? Fleming, Darren Purse, Steve Vickers, David Burrows, Nicky Eaden, Martin O'Connor (Graham Hyde 45), Tresor Luntala, Stan Lazaridis, Marcelo, Tommy Mooney.

Substitutes not used: Vaesen, Grainger, Horsfield, Andrew Johnson.

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Jamie Smith (Dean Austin 86), Hayden Mullins, Kit Symons, Christian Edwards, Jovan Kirovski, Simon Rodger (Tommy Black 72), Aki Riihilahti, Julian Gray, Steve Kabba (Steve Thomson 61), Dougie Freedman.

Substitutes not used: Gary Hateley, Craig Harrison.

Attendance: 24,119

Referee: Mr A Leake (Darwen)