Crystal Palace - 3 (Moore 44. Burton 52. Curcic 83.)
Wolverhampton Wanderers - 2 (Sedgley 63. 85.)

So, a match finally came round in which we faced not one but two ex-Palace players. Surely this should be enough to give the opposition a 2 goal start? As it was they did finally score two goals, but neither came from Kevin Muscat or Neil Emblem. In an attempt to reverse the roles a little though, we did have Jamie Smith (ex Wolves) on our side. As seems to be the case in the last few matches the first half was mainly spent with the teams sizing each other up, neither really making an impression on the oppositions goal. The only real item of note was that our "ace in the hole" Smith received a badly gashed ankle and had to be replaced by Sagi Burton. Some of you may remember Sagi from a season or two ago when he was unable to get on the field because the referee would not look the right way. He turned out to be an important substitution later on in this match! Finally, when it appeared that the teams would go to the break locked at 0-0 a corner taken by Nick Rizzo was headed on by Fan Zhiyi and Craig Moore was on hand to blast the ball into the back of the net. I am sorry to say that Craig is so new to the team that I have, so far, been unable to get a decent picture of him in Palace kit. I should have one by the time he scores his next goal.

The second half saw more pressure being put on by the Palace forwards, with Moore, Matt Jansen and Hayden Mullins all making good attempts on goal. Seven minutes into the half our opportunity really came when Matthias Svensson was tripped in the area and Attilio Lombardo stepped up to take the penalty. For once the keeper guessed right, and Attilio saw his attempt at the conversion being turned aside for a corner. Despite making such a fine save elation turned to despair only moments later when, after a quickly taken corner Sagi rose above the crowd and headed home his first senior goal for the Club. Things were now looking quite good for the Palace side, with two new players on the scoresheet and a visiting Wolves side looking down and out. Needless to say this all changed following our second goal. Two fine attempts were kept out by Fraser Digby then, considering that both of our goals had come from corners we gave them one!

With 62 minutes showing on the clock the corner came in and Steve Sedgley headed the ball home in the blink of an eye. The score was suddenly 2-1, and we were looking somewhat vulnerable. I suppose that the team were travelling quite well, but it is the lot of the Palace supporter over the years to worry when the opposition seems to be coming back at us. A few minutes later it was the turn of Svensson to be taken from the field of play, later reports telling us that it may be a broken ankle in his case. This game was starting to take on the appearance of being somewhat rough, so Terry Venables sent for the big guns, bringing Sasa Curcic on for the somewhat more lightweight Rizzo. A reflex save from Digby to a Michael Gilkes effort saw Palace maintain their slender margin, and finally the substitution came to our rescue again. A free kick just outside the area saw a magnificent shot from Sasa in the back of the net before Stowell could move, and now we could all breathe again, our 2 goal margin had been restored. Just when all seemed well, considering that we had scored twice from corners, Wolves scored again from another corner. Once again it was Sedgley that rose above the defence, and we were only one goal ahead. But the clock was running out - as long as we didn't give them a free kick to copy our other goal everything should be all right, shouldn't it? Never being ones to make things easy for ourselves, with just four minutes remaining on the clock Sasa was injured and had to leave the game. Suddenly we were down to 10 men (all substitutes having been used) and hanging on for dear life. The situation didn't last only four minutes either, the referee seemed to add on an inordinate amount of injury time before finally blowing the full time whistle. Three more points in the bag, even if they were hard fought for points, and most welcome they were too. Another couple of wins of this calibre and we will see the team back up at the top end of the table.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Digby, Sun, Smith (Burton 22), Fan, Moore, Foster, Lombardo, Rizzo (Curcic 71), Svensson (Morrison 70), Jansen, Mullins.
Not Used: None.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Stowell, Muscat, Gilkes, Emblem (Naylor 62), Sedgley, Curle, Corica, Robinson, Connolly (Foley 58), Gomez, Ferguson.
Not Used: Atkins.

Attendance: 16,417
Referee: Mr A N Butler (Sutton-in-Ashfield).