Bristol City - 1 (Akinbiyi 25.)
Crystal Palace - 1 (Bell og 23.)

Another away match, and for once at least, a little dividend for Palace. The pitch was in an atrocious condition, which made playing for either side quite difficult, so not surprisingly a number of chances were wasted. Despite Matt Jansen looking quite good up front he was unable to convert his chances, and it took until the 23rd minute for either side to trouble the scorer. When the goal did come it was not very convincing. Craig Foster found himself free and thumped the ball goalwards. Steve Phillips was unable to hang on to the ball which escaped from his grasp, hit Mickey Bell and rolled agonisingly, for the home side, over the line. Suddenly we were 1-0 up. It was not to last very long though, in fact two minutes later the scores were level once again. Bell, having gifted us the goal earlier was instrumental in providing the equaliser, his corner flying to Ade Akinbiyi who outjumped the defence to head powerfully home. Akinbiyi almost made it 2-1, his header this time hitting the post. Jansen produced a fine touch that the keeper did well to keep out.

Substitutions were the order of the day due to injuries sustained in the atrocious conditions and the only real chances of the second half fell one to each side. Tony Thorpe managed to break clear only to see his shot go wide, whilst at the other end Lee Bradbury sent his effort once again just wide of the post.

Whilst both sides can probably bemoan the loss of two points they are, most likely, pleased to have got a point from the game. For Palace it may just be the start of the change of their fortunes on the road. Obviously though there is still much work to be done, and one can only hope that Terry Venables will be able to take steps to remedy the situation in the short term. Of course, a number of players are currently missing from the team, and once most of those are back a change could well look much better.

Colin Pryce

Bristol City: Phillips, Brennan, Bell, Murray, Shail, Carey, Edwards, Thorpe, Akinbiyi (Goodridge 46), Andersen, Brown (Doherty 46).
Not Used: Hutchings.

Crystal Palace: Miller, Amsalem, Crowe, Petric (Bradbury 56), Burton, Foster, Rodger, Mullins, Svensson (Thomson 73), Jansen, Tuttle.
Not Used: Austin.

Attendance: 13,014
Referee: Mr E K Wolstenholme (Blackburn).