Crystal Palace - 1 (Curcic 74.)
Sheffield United - 0

A win in this game would drag us away from the bottom of the table, but with a formidable opponent such as Sheffield United this was never going to be an easy match. To add to everyone's nerves about the match unfortunately one of the RAF's skydivers was injured in the pre match entertainment and the kick off was delayed by some 10 minutes. With the match underway Palace did not even manage a touch on the ball before they came very close to going a goal down. A cross from Quinn fell to Borbokis whose shot was deflected over the bar at the last moment. It took fully nine minutes for the home side to reply in kind. Attilio Lombardo managed to get past the defence and put in a deft pass to Clinton Morrison. His shot brought about a fine save from Andy Goram. The next chance fell to Dean Saunders, but he only managed to steer his shot wide of the mark. There were very few other chances of note during the first half of play, though Palace's stocks rose somewhat in the 38th minute when Ian Hamilton found himself sent off for his second bookable offence. Despite the fact that there were only 10 men on the opposition side Palace still found it difficult to find the goal, the one chance coming when Bruce Dyer was offside.

The second half got underway with Sasa Curcic taking the field for David Amsalem. Even so the first opportunity fell to the visitors. Gareth Taylor (yes, another ex-Palace player!) fired his shot into the side netting. Saunders then shot wide of the mark, and finally the team woke up to the fact that they were playing a side reduced in number, and thus they went on the attack. A succession of six corners followed, the best of the chances being a header from Fan Zhiyi which the defence did well to head off the line. Finally the pressure told, with Fan making a run into space, and though his cross was too difficult for Morrison to control he managed to flick the ball on to Sasa. Taking on the defence he slipped past three defenders before placing the ball through the legs of one of them, giving the keeper no chance of effecting a save. 1-0 up, and only some 16 minutes to go to the end. Needless to say United nearly equalised almost immediately. When Stuart somehow managed to get free of the defence it was Fraser Digby who made an excellent save at the feet of the attacker. Following this Devlin put the ball over the bar, and Morrison hit the side netting when Curcic was free in the middle. Game over.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Digby, Burton, Amsalem (Curcic 45), Rizzo (Del Rio 86), Tuttle, Linighan, Lombardo, Zhiyi, Morrison, Dyer (Padovano 54), Mullins.
Not Used: None.

Sheffield United: Goram, Borbokis, Quinn, Bruce (Devlin 78), Sandford (Nilsen 78), Ford, Saunders, Marker, Marcello (Taylor 45), Hamilton, Stuart.
Not Used: None.

Attendance: 20,370
Referee: Mr P Taylor (Cheshunt).