Sheffield Wednesday - 0
Crystal Palace - 0
A free kick to Palace saw the ball go back to Alex Kolinko in goal, then forward to Dele. His pass was to Julian, but his centering cross totally missed Andy Johnson. A free kick at the other end was hit straight at the Palace wall, and bounced safely away.
With two of the Sheffield Wednesday down injured in a clash of heads, another free kick was given, but Leon Knight could find no way round Hayden Mullins. An injury occurred to Steve Thomson, and though he managed to get back on the field of play, he was not to last very long. Another immediate injury befell Alex in goal, and for a while there it looked as though Lance Cronin might get his League (and first team) debut, but Alex soldiered on, and came in for a lot of praise at the end of the match.
Aki Riihilahti came on for Steve, who, as stated, was unable to continue, and play went on much the same as it had been for the first 22 minutes. The defence cleared a cross in by AJ, and then a move forward by Hayden saw a ball that was just too deep for Wayne Routledge, on the right touchline. A free kick, taken by Danny Butterfield, was cleared again by the Wednesday defence, but then the first real shot at goal came. Wayne controlled the ball well, made his way inside his marker, and let fly a great shot that Kevin Pressman just managed to tip over the top of the crossbar.
From the resulting corner the keeper did well to cut out the dangerous ball, and getting it forward quickly Shefki Kuqi saw his shot go wide of the post. Gerald Sibon was caught offside, and then a foul on Darren Powell brought about another free kick for Palace. A cross in from Wayne found AJ at the back post, but his header hit the post, and the ball rebounded safely once more. A good cross in found AJ once again, but this time his shot went straight to the keeper, and without further ado the whistle went to signify the end of the first half.
Neither manager would have been pleased with the standard of play, but unfortunately it was not about to get any better. In fact, if anything, Palace got marginally worse.
Wednesday made two immediate substitutions at the beginning of the second half, Lloyd Owusu and Matthew Hamshaw coming on for Sibon and Craig Armstrong. Free kicks were traded, then a corner to our hosts was blasted over the top by Knight. Dele was then caught offside trying to run on to ball that was put through by AJ, and then Tony Popovic had to be alert to clear a promising move forward by Wednesday.
A pass from Julian failed to find AJ in the centre, and then another cross, this time from Wayne saw AJ get booked for kicking the ball away. I wonder if the players will ever learn? Another free kick saw Dele shoot just wide of the post, but to even things up Wednesday did exactly the same with a free kick at the other end. This seemed a period of nothing but free kicks, but they all fared just as badly as each other, none of them even looking likely to eventuate in a long awaited goal.
Aki got in a long-range shot, but it went well wide of the post, and then a deft piece of play at the other end saw Alex save well from a shot taken by Alan Quinn. Another shot from the home team went wide of the mark and Julian put in a neat cross, with nobody at home to make a final touch, and steer the ball into the back of the net. Dougie then came on for AJ, but the action was still at the other end, Tony putting in a good tackle to dispossess Owusu.
Darren and Owusu both managed to get themselves booked, and the resulting free kick to Wednesday was easily cleared by the Palace defence. With four minutes of added on time Palace managed to force a couple of corners, and Wednesday got a free kick that Palace cleared. The final whistle came, and a fairly poor game, for both sides, came to a merciful end.
We now wait on our televised fixture at home to Gillingham next Sunday.
Colin Pryce
Sheffield Wednesday: Kevin Pressman, Craig Armstrong (Matthew Hamshaw 46), Leigh Bromby, David Burrows, Ian Hendon, Danny Maddix, Paul McLaren, Alan Quinn, Leon Knight, Shefki Kuqi, Gerald Sibon (Lloyd Owusu 46).
Substitutes not used: Christopher Stringer, Derek Geary, Trond Egil Soltvedt.
Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Danny Granville, Hayden Mullins, Tony Popovic, Darren Powell, Danny Butterfield, Julian Gray, Steve Thomson (Aki Riihilahti 22), Dele Adebola, Andrew Johnson (Dougie Freedman 72), Wayne Routledge.
Substitutes not used: Lance Cronin, Dean Austin, Tommy Black.
Attendance: 16,112
Referee: Mr R Olivier (Sutton Coldfield)