Crystal Palace - 0
Grimsby Town - 1 (Allen 20.)

Five matches without a win, supposedly one of our "easy" matches behind us (the loss to Portsmouth), and we really needed to win this one to get ourselves up the table and out of the relegation area. Needless to say we were unable to achieve any points in this match, and we now face three very hard matches in the next week beginning with a visit to Bolton Wanderers. Alan will need to buck up the players "will to win" in order to take anything out of those matches.

We opened this match with Dougie Freedman and Mikael Forssell as our attack force, and Clinton Morrison was relegated to the bench, but no matter what the combination of the team it seems we are unable to take a trick at this time. Grimsby certainly started the more lively of the two teams, with all of their players seeming to go close to goal before we had even managed to get a real close look at their end of the pitch. David Nielsen and Steve Livingstone looked the most likely to score, but it was a mix up in the Palace goal between Andy Morrison and Alex Kolinko that led to the opening strike. Danny Coyne sent in a typical long punt and with Morrison and Kolinko both hesitant as to who should go for the ball Bradley Allen managed to nip in between them and poked the ball home for his fifth mark of the season.

Palace's best chance of the first half fell to home debutant Dougie Freedman, but Coyne was quick off the mark to save the ball on the edge of his area. So the break arrived, we were one down, and no doubt Alan would have had harsh words to say to bring us out firing in the second part of the play.

Admittedly the team did seem to try, but with possession being lost in midfield the job at hand was only going to get harder. Freedman did manage to get on the end of one pass, but his header sailed over the top of the bar. Clinton Morrison came on to the field not long after half time, and he came close, forcing Coyne into a fine double save. The keeper was obviously having one of his better nights, and it looked increasingly as if Grimsby would take the three points home for the first time on their travels this season.

Injury time arrived, and a last second attempt by Tommy Black was denied by a reflex movement from the keeper, sticking out his leg at the very last moment to stop the ball finding the back of the net.

The match was over, and once again the team had nothing to show for their efforts. With the so-called "easy" games out of the way Bolton, Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday should certainly prove hard nuts to crack. Let's hope that Alan has a few more aces up his sleeve, and that he can pull off some sort of extra effort to get the team moving in the right direction.

Good luck Alan!

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Jamie Smith, Hayden Mullins (Simon Rodger 63), Dougie Freedman, Tommy Black, Mikael Forssell (Clinton Morrison 58), Andrejs Rubins, Jamie Pollock, Craig Harrison (Julian Gray 75), Steve Staunton, Andy Morrison.

Substitutes not used: Andrew Frampton, Wayne Carlisle.

Grimsby Town: Danny Coyne, John McDermott, Tony Gallimore, Peter Handyside, Stuart Campbell, Paul Groves, Danny Butterfield, Steve Livingstone, Stacy Coldicott, Bradley Allen (Paul Raven 82), David Nielsen.

Substitutes not used: Kevin Donovan, David Smith, Steve Croudson, Daryl Clare.

Attendance: 16,685

Referee: Mr A D'Urso (Billericay).