Crystal Palace - 1 (Popovic 80.)
Bradford City - 1 (Tod 76.)
The initial attacking raids all seemed to come from the visitors, with Palace seemingly unable to hang on to the ball, but none of them looked particularly threatening. Gus Uhlenbeek took the first shot on goal, though it was from so far out that it was never going to be a real problem. The ball actually deflected off Ashley Ward and went out for a goal kick.
Hayden Mullins finally made a break for Palace, but his cross into the middle was far too strong for our attack force. Danny Granville took a free kick for Palace, but an offside trap caught a number of our players out, and the move came to nothing. To add to our woes, the next free kick was easily cleared by the Bradford defence, and a move by Shaun Derry did not bring the desired result, his play to Dougie Freedman falling down.
Tony Popovic cleared well when Tom Kearney appeared to be free on goal. Dougie then managed to outwit the keeper, but taking too long to make his shot cost us dear when Peter Atherton managed to get back to the goal line and clear the ball away from the danger area. Another free kick to Palace found Shaun, but his header was well saved by Gary Walsh, and then Tommy Black put in a slick pass to Dougie that just failed to find the striker.
Andy Johnson managed to get past the defence but was eventually robbed of the ball when he looked clear before Curtis Fleming found himself off the field with a head injury. Playing momentarily with only 10 men Palace forced a corner, and a good delivery by Danny Butterfield found Shaun lurking once again, but the same result happened, his header was saved once again. Dean Austin came on to replace the injured captain.
Paul Evans hit a rasping shot that Matt Clarke did well to knock down out of harm's way before Tommy forced a corner at the other end. AJ managed to get a shot in low down, but once again the keeper was equal to the task. Shaun then tried to chip the ball over the advancing custodian, but the attempt went over the top, and one can be pretty certain that the keeper would have been back in time had it fallen on target.
Bradford managed to force a corner right at the end of the three minutes added on to the first half, but fortunately the chance was wasted, and the sides went to the break all locked up at 0-0.
Aki Riihilahti was brought on for Tommy, so obviously Trevor Francis had his own ideas as to why the attacking formation did not work in the first stanza of play. Danny Butterfield played a good ball in to Hayden, but his attempt on goal was not particularly strong. Dougie made good ground, and put in a cross that was cleared by Ward (what was he doing all the way back there?), and further attempts by Aki and others also failed to find their targets.
Darren Powell earned his second yellow card in as many matches when he tangled with Danny Cadamarteri, but then made amends for his indiscretion, making a great run up the field that won us yet another corner. Bradford took the opportunity to make a substitution of their own, bringing on Andy Tod for Cadamarteri, and the result of the corner was that Aki headed the ball well over the top.
Dougie made a good run, then passed the ball to an empty goalmouth area before Danny Butterfield managed to hit a ball forward that again found no-one, and simply ran over the line for a goal kick. AJ made a good run, but it seemed no matter what we did we were unable to get the ball to anyone in the middle of the pitch to make the territorial advantage pay dividends.
The third (or is it the 4th?) official then brandished a red card, to Trevor Francis, for what later appeared to be a simple byplay with Alex Kolinko on the sidelines, and as such he was obliged to watch the balance of the match from the stands. Despite all the pressure that Palace was putting on the visitors goal, it was, needless to say, the visitors that then opened the scoring. Uhlenbeek made a good run down the left before crossing in to Tod, and with his first real touch of the ball he slotted the chance home, and we were 1-0 down.
The lead only lasted a few minutes though, as Palace forced a corner at the other end courtesy of Hayden, which Danny Butterfield played in, and Tony simply headed the ball downwards, and into the back of the net. Once again we were on equal terms, though we had certainly made hard work of it. In a repeat of last Saturday, Trevor played his final ace, bringing Steve Kabba on, this time to replace Andy, but one would think that there was very little time for him to hit the winner this time round.
Dougie played the ball in to Steve, but the chance was lost as he fell to the ground, and then Tod played a good ball to Kearney who sent his shot just wide of the goal. A good run by Dougie came to an end when he tried to beat one too many players, having already beaten quite a few, and at the other end Bradford managed to fall in to the offside trap.
An altercation, in which it appeared that Danny Granville accused Ward of "diving" led to them both being awarded yellow cards (so maybe he was right, and maybe it was just for retaliation?). Tony saved any blushes as the play approached our end of the field once more, and good play by Steve and Tony saw a final corner won by Palace. Could they win the game with a last gasp effort? Not with 21 men all crowded into the one box they could not! OK - maybe not quite 21, but there were a lot of players there, and the ball was forced clear by the defence.
The game came to a close, and though many rued the 2 points lost, I for one will happily accept 4 points from every 2 games played this season - with that ratio we are certainties for promotion.
Colin Pryce
Crystal Palace: Matt Clarke, Curtis Fleming (Dean Austin 32), Danny Granville, Tony Popovic, Darren Powell, Danny Butterfield, Hayden Mullins, Shaun Derry, Tommy Black (Aki Riihilahti 45), Andy Johnson (Steve Kabba 83), Dougie Freedman.
Substitutes not used: Alex Kolinko, Steve Thomson.
Bradford City: Gary Walsh, Peter Atherton, Andy Myers, Gus Uhlenbeek, Lewis Emanuel (Mark Bower 78), Tom Kearney, Jamie Lawrence, Paul Evans, Andy Gray, Danny Cadamarteri (Andy Tod 71), Ashley Ward.
Substitutes not used: Michael Standing, Aidan Davison, Claus Jorgensen.
Attendance: 15,205
Referee: Mr P Armstrong (Berkshire)