Crystal Palace - 2 (Tuttle 34. Curcic pen 75.)
Watford - 2 (Wright pen 24. Kennedy pen 27.)

A home match, another chance to put some points on the board, the only problem being the opponents, Watford, who are currently flying high in the table.

A high number of bookings from the referee marred what could have been a free flowing game. Despite a slow start it was Watford that eventually took the lead when Allen Stuart sent over a great cross which Nick Wright met, his header going in off the crossbar. As usual things got worse for Palace. Only three minutes later the same two players were involved in a move, but this time they were the providers, with Peter Kennedy getting free at the far post to steer the ball home. It was time for our luck to change, and for once it did. 32 minutes gone, and David Tuttle tried a speculative shot which was heading straight for the arms of keeper Alec Chamberlain. The problem for Watford was that their skipper Robert Page got in the way and deflected the ball away from the keeper and into the back of the net. The final chance of the half fell to Attilio Lombardo, the shot being cleared off the line.

The second half started with a bad trip on Lombardo by Paul Robinson, and for a while it looked as though the match would really get quite ugly. The chances though, started to flow for Palace, with Craig Foster's drive being well deflected by Chamberlain then Lombardo hit the post when the goal was wide open. At about the one hour mark Nick Rizzo was replaced by Sasa Curcic, who in his inimitable style started to cause problems for the visitors. At 75 minutes he managed to run past no fewer than four defenders before being dumped on the ground by Darren Bazeley. The penalty that we were denied last week came good this time, and Sasa picked himself up to take the kick. Despite the keeper guessing the direction there was too much pace on the ball, and suddenly the scores were level.

Watford managed to hang on for the remainder of the game, and I guess that after being 2-0 down to a team running second in the League a point is a very creditable effort.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Digby, Smith, Crowe, Petric, Moore, Foster, Lombardo, Rizzo (Curcic 59), Bradbury, Morrison (Bent 82), Tuttle.
Not Used: Thomson.

Watford: Digby, Smith, Crowe, Petric, Moore, Foster, Lombardo, Rizzo (Curcic 59), Bradbury, Morrison (Bent 82), Tuttle.
Not Used: Gudmundsson.

Attendance: 19,521
Referee: Mr S Bennett (Orpington).