Swindon Town - 2 (Reeves 21. Hall 61.)
Crystal Palace - 4 (Morrison 29. 88. Foster 55. Mullins pen 57.)

Considering the fact that Swindon were languishing at the bottom of the table this was certainly a match that Palace had every right to be fearful of. Swindon had only won one away game going into this match, and that was against us! They achieved the "double" over us last season, and our team would have been determined not to allow them to do so again this time around. The usual hoodoo of the lower teams beating those above them was certainly well in the thoughts of those brave Palace supporters who made the trip to watch the team. No wonder Swindon advertised that tickets would be on sale at the gate for any supporters that wanted to travel, as even with those that did the total attendance only came to a little over 5000. With the critics once again proclaiming that this was a "six point" game for the sides the players took the field probably more in trepidation than expectation.

The first twenty minutes saw the ball being played from end to end of the ground, but apart from an attempt from Clinton Morrison that was well saved by Frank Talia there was little goalmouth action. A minute after this though, it was the home side that opened the scoring when Gareth Hall sent in a goalwards bound free kick that defender Alan Reeves rose to meet, heading the ball easily past Fraser Digby, and sending the home crowd into roars of delight.

Palace, to their credit, did not panic, and within the next few minutes play continued to move from end to end. Clinton Morrison then showed why he was picked so early for the first team following his lay off due to his shoulder injury when he received a great through ball from Hayden Mullins. He turned and beat two defenders before firing the ball past Talia to bring the scores back level.

The game had finally warmed up! Or had it?

Apart from a few nice moves by both sides there was little action where it mattered, at the goal, and the teams finally trooped off all locked up at 1-1 with everything to play for in the second half.

The second half got underway with more of the same, and after ten minutes it was starting to look as if something should finally give, and it did. A goalmouth scramble saw Morrison challenging for the ball and Talia doing his best to cover the loose ball. It was Craig Foster though that managed to stick out a foot and convert the opportunity into a goal and finally put the Eagles into the lead for the first time in the match.

Not content with this lead two minutes later we were back in their area, with Mullins in full flight. Adjudged to have been brought down by Scott Leitch, he picked himself up and duly converted the resultant penalty to make the chances of a Swindon comeback look a little slimmer.

Within only a few minutes though, a comeback did look on the cards.

A dangerous looking situation at our end appeared to be arrested when Dean Austin sent a back pass to Fraser, but inexplicably Digby picked up the ball and an indirect free kick was awarded. Leitch took the tap, and Hall somehow managed to "thread the needle" avoiding all the defenders and curling the ball in just inches under the bar. So it was 3-2, and there was still nearly half an hour of the match to run.

It appeared only a matter of time though as first Mullins and then Morrison tested the defence, with Swindon making no headway.

With only a couple of minutes of normal time, plus injury time to go, it was Morrison that sealed the points for us when once again he went round the defence, and this time he finished in a manner that gave the keeper no chance whatsoever.

So, a fine 4-2 win, and the pressure was relieved on the side for another week, but Swindon will have to look a long way to avoid the inevitable drop that they appear destined for.

Now that they have played us for the final time this season we wish them all the best for the rest of this year.

Steve Coppell was well pleased with the three points, as well he should be, but he will be ruing the fact that Terry Phelan would now appear to have played his last game for us, and we may well be scratching to come up with a defensive line-up for the match against Huddersfield Town.

Hopefully Matthias will be back for that match, and we could well have the situation of not knowing which players to play in attack. What a bonus!

Colin Pryce

Swindon Town: Frank Talia, Gareth Hall, Sam Campagna, Alan Reeves, Andy Williams, Fraser McHugh, Lee Collins (Phillipe Cuervo 68), Scott Leitch, Sol Davis (James Williams 84), Chris Hay, Mark McCammon.

Substitutes not used: Steve Mildenhall, Scott Howe, Steve Cowe.

Crystal Palace: Fraser Digby, Jamie Smith, Dean Austin, Hayden Mullins, Clinton Morrison (Andrew Martin 89), Craig Foster, Andy Linighan, Wayne Carlisle, Leon McKenzie, Simon Rodger, Terry Phelan.

Substitutes not used: Steve Mautone, Andrew Frampton, David Woozley, Nick Rizzo.

Attendance: 5,214

Referee: Mr F Stretton (Nottingham).