Crystal Palace - 1 (Freedman 56.)
Rotherham United - 1 (Swailes 31.)
Palace kicked off the match, and as young Wayne Routledge fired a cross in the ball fell nicely for Neil Shipperley who headed a shot just wide of the post. What a start that would have been, if only it had gone in.
A cross into the centre at our end of the pitch was poorly controlled by Martin Butler and Palace broke down the right with Wayne just failing to find Andy Johnson. Butler did well to play Darren Byfield in, but Cedric Berthelin left his area to beat the attacking man to the ball; talk about just in time.
Dougie Freedman won a corner that Danny Butterfield fired in for Darren Powell to head back at the post. The ball, unfortunately, merely passed by for a goal kick and the chance was wasted. AJ then shot wide when he really should have done better after making such good ground to the ball.
Butler was caught offside, and despite winning three corners in quick succession Palace were unable to convert the chances into goals. Butler messed up a shot at goal, when any decent contact would have resulted in a goal, and Chris Swailes found his name in the book for a deliberate handball.
Danny took the resulting free kick from the edge of the area, but the defence was equal to the task, and once again the chance went begging. Stewart Talbot then got a shot in that went off the bar and away to safety, and it was looking dangerous that our visitors just might score on the break. The next chance saw Cedric tip the ball over the top, and from the corner that followed Scott Minto found Swailes unmarked in the box, and he simply powered the ball into the back of the net. Palace were certainly up against it now.
AJ was brought down on the edge of the area by Robert Scott, who found his name the second in the book for the afternoon, and as Tommy Black swung the ball in Shaun Derry sent the ball just wide of the mark. Scott then got a cross in that Shaun Barker really should have scored from; and had he done so it would almost certainly have been the end of Palace's chances for the day.
Despite one minute of injury time being played there was little further action, and the players left the field, and one can be sure that Steve Kember would have had many words to say to the players. Just what was said may never be known, but he certainly would not have been happy with the performance to date.
Rotherham got the second half underway, and Danny immediately tried to repeat his shot of the other day, a 30-yard effort just clipping the roof of the net as the keeper failed to react to the well-struck shot. Wayne got the ball to AJ who forced a good save from Michael Pollitt in the visitors goal, and shortly after Byfield found himself one on one with Cedric, but he sent his shot wide of the post. Danny got the ball up the other end, and with an inch perfect pass he managed to find Dougie unmarked in the centre, and he simply steered the ball home to level things at 1-1.
Palace then made a change, Aki Riihilahti replacing Shaun, and a series of yellow cards followed, all to our visitors. Minto, Paul Warne and Shaun Barker were the recipients of those yellow cards, and in the midst of these mad minutes Richard Barker replaced Byfield followed by Paul Hurst replacing Shaun Barker.
Another corner to Palace saw Neil head the ball over the top, and two more corners and a free kick failed to produce another goal for us. Calamity then struck Pollitt in goal, for as he raced out to catch the ball he took it outside his area. The referee looked, for a moment, as if he would take no action, but then he seemed to suddenly realise that he had no choice other than to red card the keeper, sending him for a bath a few minutes earlier than scheduled. Butler was the unfortunate player who came off with the keeper, in order that substitute keeper Gary Montgomery could take his place between the sticks, but the free kick to Palace was tapped by Tommy to AJ, who blasted his shot over the top of the bar once more.
In injury time Darren managed to hit the post, and much to the annoyance of those supporters that had remained at the game the referee signalled full time, and the game was over. Just whether this was another occasion of 2 points lost, or 1 point gained considering we were a goal down for some 25 minutes of the match is a matter of conjecture, but one can be certain that an improved showing will be needed if we are to get a result on Tuesday night against Ipswich Town.
Let's hope that Steve and Terry Bullivant can get the team motivated by that time. Maybe, just maybe, Gareth Williams might get a start, just to show what he may be able to do; though somehow I suspect the next we see of the player we sponsor may well be against Blackpool in the next round of the Carling Cup.
Colin Pryce
Crystal Palace: Cedric Berthelin, Darren Powell, Hayden Mullins, Curtis Fleming, Wayne Routledge, Shaun Derry (Aki Riihilahti 57), Danny Butterfield, Tommy Black, Andrew Johnson, Neil Shipperley, Dougie Freedman.
Substitutes not used: Lance Cronin, Kit Symons, Jamie Smith, Gary Borrowdale.
Rotherham United: Michael Pollitt, Robert Scott, Shaun Barker (Paul Hurst 72), Chris Swailes, Scott Minto, Chris Sedgwick, Carl Robinson, Stewart Talbot, Paul Warne, Darren Byfield (Richard Barker 69), Martin Butler (Gary Montgomery 87).
Substitutes not used: John Mullin, Andy Monkhouse.
Attendance: 18,715
Referee: Mr P Walton