Crystal Palace - 2 (Black 51. Fan 82.)
Nottingham Forest - 3 (Johnson 12. Platt 31. Mullins {og} 40.)

This game is probably best described as the game that had everything, plus some! In addition it had some pretty poor defending from both sides, and some very entertaining goals to keep the fans on their toes. That Alan Smith would have been disappointed with the final outcome goes without saying, but he must surely have been pleased with the fighting spirit shown by the lads on the field? If not, then he is a very hard taskmaster, but then maybe that is what the side needs. He will certainly be upset about the on-field incident that marred the end of the game.

The match was only about five minutes old when Stern John failed to open the scoring, his goalward bound shot going straight to Stuart Taylor. The visitors did not have to wait much longer though. With 12 minutes gone Chris Bart-Williams took a free kick, and it was Andy Johnson who rose above the Palace defence to head the ball into the back of the net past our stranded keeper. The action moved to the other end of the field, with Dave Beasant being called on at least twice to save good looking shots from Mikael Forssell, but it was to be Forest that scored next, and what a strike it was. A cross came in and it was John that headed the ball down into the path of player and manager David Platt. His first time shot was struck unerringly past Taylor in goal, and suddenly we were two goals down. This occurred just after Neil Ruddock was forced to leave the field, and we hope that there is nothing seriously wrong with him, and that he will be back at the helm next weekend.

As if this was not bad enough just nine minutes later Jack Lester made a great run down the right, and his cross was met by Hayden Mullins in defence. Unfortunately it really has not been Hayden's long weekend. First he missed the penalty on Saturday against Huddersfield, and this time his misguided header wrong-footed Taylor, and the ball flew into the back of the net. 3-0 down, half time still five minutes away, and even the most die-hard Palace supporters must have been thinking that the game was all but over. No one counted though on the obvious powers of persuasion that Alan must surely possess, as our performance in the second period of play was as good as any seen in the recent past.

The immediate thing that was noticed was that Palace formed up in a 4-4-2 formation, and instantly looked more threatening. Forest appeared content to sit on their 3-0 lead, and indeed they saw very little of the ball for the entire 45 minutes of play.

Almost all of the play was concentrated in the Forest half of the field, and the visitors were obviously going to try to just absorb the pressure, and perhaps hit us on the break.

It is probably true that we had to wait on a mistake from Forest, and it duly came at 51 minutes. A very poor clearance by Alan Rogers went simply to Tommy Black, who, from 20 yards out, simply smashed the ball back wide of Beasant to pull one goal back.

That it took so long for us to get another was really a mixture of luck and poor judgment, and there were only eight minutes left on the clock when Wayne Carlisle sent in a great corner kick and Chinese International Fan Zhiyi headed fiercely home to really make the game come to life.

Fan was determined to make this a real match, as the next foray on goal saw his shot cleared off the line, and then followed what can only be called a comedy of errors, misjudgments and sheer stupidity. As to who is to blame, well, I guess the FA will sort that out in the next week or so.

Fan was still on the ball when Beasant rashly charged out of his goal and sent him flying with what can only be called a reckless tackle. The referee agreed, and promptly signalled a free kick to Palace, and a red card to Beasant. Bear in mind here, that 90 minutes was already showing on the clock. The ball was thrown back, somewhat hard some may say, and Fan reacted by appearing to throw a punch at Tony Vaughan. Then it was on for young and old, not that we have many players that can be described as old! During the resulting melee the referee consulted with the linesman, and signalled that the "free kick" would in fact be a penalty. Forest made a quick substitution, bringing on 18 year-old Barry Roche.

Julian Gray stepped up to take the penalty, and one could hear the whole crowd thinking, "Surely we can't miss two penalties in successive matches?" I wonder if we can really hear people think? He didn't miss, though to the dismay of the crowd the ref signalled that the penalty had to be taken again, as some of the players had encroached on the area. This time Julian went the opposite way, and Roche guessed correctly, bringing off a match winning save. His first touch in senior football had earned his side three points, and Palace had to settle for simply learning a lesson about allowing a team to get too far ahead in a game.

The results of the on pitch fracas? Anyone's guess really, but it is certain that Forest will face an automatic £5,000 fine for having six players booked in the match, both teams could face fines of up to £50,000 once the "fight" is reviewed on video, and Fan could face individual action following his reaction to the ball throwing incident. Alan will certainly be holding his own enquiry, and Platt has already signalled that he will be reviewing the tape, as he feels most players were involved in simply trying to calm things down.

Believe it, or believe it not, but for certain both sides will be looking for maximum points next weekend.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Stuart Taylor, Fan Zhiyi, Neil Ruddock (Dean Smith 31), Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Clinton Morrison (Wayne Carlisle 80), Tommy Black, Julian Gray, Mikael Forssell (Leon McKenzie 63), Jamie Pollock, Craig Harrison.

Substitutes not used: Jamie Smith, Jamie Fullarton.

Nottingham Forest: Dave Beasant, Alan Rogers, David Prutton, Jack Lester (Barry Roche 90), Stern John (Robbie Blake 73), Andy Johnson, Chris Bart-Williams, Tony Vaughan, Mathieu Louis-Jean, David Platt (Gary Jones 77), Chris Doig.

Substitutes not used: Marlon Harewood, Kevin Dawson.

Attendance: 18,865

Referee: Mr R. Olivier (Sutton Coldfield).