Port Vale - 2 (Rougier 20. Foyle 77.)
Crystal Palace - 2 (McKenzie 54. Svensson 75.)

Palace travelled to Port Vale, knowing that a loss would almost certainly put them back into the relegation zone. With Jamie Fullarton injured the task was only going to be that much harder.

The crowd would certainly have been disappointing if the match had been at Selhurst Park, and one doubts that the turn-out would really have pleased Brian Horton.

With both teams desperate for the points this was always going to be a hard tussle, and so it proved.

Despite chances to both sides it took until the 20th minute for the deadlock to be broken, unfortunately in favour of the home side. Tommy Widdrington took a free kick that Anthony Gardner headed down to Tony Rougier who made no mistake from only six yards out, sweeping the ball past a helpless Fraser Digby. The rest of the half continued to go the way of Vale, who were perhaps unlucky not to go to the break more than one goal up.

Palace came out for the second half, and applied early pressure right from the word go. Both Simon Rodger and Leon McKenzie went close before Rougier had a turn.

Gardner then tried a shot, but once again Digby was on hand to snuff out the danger. As the hour mark rapidly approached it was starting to look as if the home side were wresting the initiative back, but a free kick to Palace, taken by Simon Rodger, found Leon who beat Paul Musselwhite to the ball and placed it into the top corner of the net. 1-1, and everything to play for.

Shortly afterwards Jeff Minton came close to restoring the lead, his shot going just wide. Dave Brammer shot over the top of the bar, and it was obvious that Vale were not going to be content with just one point. With the first two goals coming from free kicks the third came the same way. Mark Snijders took this one, Rougier headed it down, and Martin Foyle was on hand to steer the ball into the back of the net off the post. Palace never gave in though, and with only two minutes remaining on the clock Matthias Svensson somehow managed to evade no less than three tackles and ensure that Palace did not leave Vale Park empty handed. A well deserved point was on its' way back to Selhurst Park, and Steve Coppell was well pleased with the teams efforts.

Colin Pryce

Port Vale: Paul Musselwhite, Allen Tankard, Liam Burns, Anthony Gardner, Matthew Carragher, Tommy Widdrington, Dave Brammer, Jeff Minton (Tony Naylor 72), Mark Snijders, Martin Foyle, Tony Rougier.

Substitutes not used: Kevin Pilkington, Richard Eyre, Steve Rimmer, Wayne Corden.

Crystal Palace: Fraser Digby, Dean Austin, Fan Zhiyi, Andy Linighan, Terry Phelan, Andrew Martin (Fernando De Ornelas 80), Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Craig Foster (Nick Rizzo 55), Clinton McKenzie, Matthias Svensson.

Substitutes not used: Matthew Gregg, James Hibburt, David Woozley.

Attendance: 5,170

Referee: Mr R Pearson (Peterlee).