Crystal Palace - 1 (Forssell 45.)
Queens Park Rangers - 1 (Carlisle 64.)

Crystal Palace Football Club (2000) Limited sounded a warning to the rest of the Clubs in Division One in the televised match on Sunday. Following on from very heavy defeats to lower League competition in the pre-season they met Blackburn last week in what Alan Smith described as a fairly creditable performance. This week, despite what many called a scrappy match, they showed that, as a team, they have what it takes to fight their way back into a force to be reckoned with. The next few weeks could well give us a good indication just how things will progress under the new management structure.

The start of this match did not look all that promising when, in the first minute Rangers forced a corner, which took a fair bit of scrambling for the defence to clear a Stuart Wardley effort. Despite performing well the visitors were unable to put the ball in the back of the net, and the next real effort on goal came from Clinton Morrison, his shot just clearing the bar.

As the half seemed to be drawing to a close, and both teams seemingly resigned to going to the break level, Palace made one last serious attempt on goal. Lee Harper made a great save, but the ball fell from his grasp. Simon Rodger sent in a shot, and though Harper appeared to have it covered Mikael Forssell deflected it into the back of the net, and without further ado the whistle signalled half time. For the first time in a long time we found ourselves ahead in a match, and Alan would have been pleased with his charges performance.

The second half got underway, and the pressure was really only being applied by Palace. The second goal would not come though, and a one-goal lead is always a very precarious position. A cross from out wide appeared to be well in the control of Stuart Taylor, but somehow he managed to make a mess of the interception, and Clarke Carlisle was on hand to steer the ball into the back of an empty net.

Despite the scores being level Palace continued to play an attacking brand of football, which saw at least two chances from Neil Ruddock going wide of the mark. In fairness at least two chances went begging for Rangers as well. A final header from Fan Zhiyi was just cleared off the line, and both sides had to settle for a point.

Alan stated at the end of the game that he was still looking at the transfer market, and there would be still more new faces arriving in the next few weeks. However, he was more than satisfied with the performance of the side, and he will not be forced into making wholesale changes in the near future, just for change sake.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Stuart Taylor, Fan Zhiyi, Neil Ruddock, Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Clinton Morrison (Leon McKenzie 83), Tommy Black, Mikael Forssell (Julian Gray 78), Wayne Carlisle, Jamie Pollock (Jamie Fullarton 56), Craig Harrison.

Substitutes not used: Jamie Smith, Dean Austin.

Queens Park Rangers: Lee Harper, Ian Baraclough, Steve Morrow, Karl Ready, Gavin Peacock, Chris Kiwomya (Karl Connolly 82), Clarke Carlisle, Richard Langley, Mark Perry, Stuart Wardley, Paul Furlong (Peter Crouch 89).

Substitutes not used: Ludek Miklosko, Antti Heinola, Jeanne.

Attendance 19,020

Referee: Mr F Stretton (Nottingham).