Crystal Palace - 1 (Morrison 89.)
Sheffield United - 1 (Bent 49.)

With both teams in the lower half of the Division this was always going to be a difficult match. United have been on a fairly good run lately and Neil Warnock would have been determined to take home all three points. Just as desperately Steve Coppell would have been looking for a maximum return to lift the side away from the relegation zone.

In cold weather the match got underway, and it was the visitors that looked the better side, with a series of raids on our goal. If it had not been for Fraser Digby in goal, the situation at half time would surely have been a lot worse.

With just 15 minutes gone Wayne Quinn took a corner for United and Lee Sandford rose above the packed area and struck a great header, which fortunately for the Palace faithful hit the bar and trickled to safety. Shortly after Marcus Bent set up Alex Notman, but his shot went straight to a relieved Digby. Palace's only efforts during this time came from Hayden Mullins and Andrew Martin, but their shots from long range did little to perturb the confident visitors.

To finish off the first half Paul Devlin took a well-directed free kick, which was well saved by Fraser, and Curtis Woodhouse failed to meet a cross from the wing.

The halftime break pep talk obviously did more for those in the visiting dressing room than those in the home shed, as within a few minutes of the break Sheffield were ahead. Robert Kozluk ran the ball down the right side of the field and sent in a pin point cross which ex-Palace player Bent met well, heading the ball down to the left of Fraser, and opening the scoring.

Being down once again in a match seemed to galvanise the home players into action, and Hayden Mullins sent in a shot that Simon Tracey could only knock down, straight into the path of Clinton Morrison. His well struck shot nestled into the back of the net, but before the crowd could celebrate too hard the linesman had his flag up to signal offside, and once more a goal went begging.

Not too long after that Andy Linighan was in the thick of the action. The big defender met a Simon Rodger corner, but his header hit the underside of the bar, and came back out. Rodger and Mullins both saw their shots saved, and just as the Palace crowd thought that they might have to go home somewhat despondent, up bobbed Clinton once again, to send them home with a little bit of a smile on their faces. A long throw from the sideline was helped on its' way by Fan Zhiyi, who was now obviously playing more in attack. His flick found Clinton unmarked, and this time he made no mistake forcing the ball into the back of the net. 1-1, and little time left on the clock, saw Palace rescue a point, and send The Blades home somewhat disappointed with their afternoons work.

As for Steve, he would have been happy with the late point, and so it is on to City Ground next week, and another match against Forest. We managed a creditable 2-0 win over them at Selhurst Park, and we will be looking for nothing less than a “double” for the season.

Good luck lads!

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Fraser Digby, Jamie Smith, Andy Linighan, David Woozley, Dean Austin, Wayne Carlisle (Nick Rizzo 67), Fan Zhiyi, Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Andrew Martin (Chris Sharpling 79), Clinton Morrison.

Substitutes not used: Andrew Frampton, James Hibburt, Steve Mautone.

Sheffield United: Simon Tracey, Rob Kozluk, Lee Sandford, Davy Gysbrechts, Wayne Quinn, Paul Devlin, Michael Brown, Curtis Woodhouse (Bruno Ribeiro 84), Bobby Ford, Alex Notman (Shaun Derry 67), Marcus Bent (Laurent D'Jaffo 60).

Substitutes not used: Matt Duke, Ian Hamilton.

Attendance: 14,877

Referee: Mr M Brandwood (Lichfield).