Preston North End - 2 (Macken 15. McKenna 61.)
Crystal Palace - 0

Palace travelled to Deepdale, and Alan Smith must have been wishing that this match could have been played at any other time. It was not that the team was in any way depleted, it was just that the team seemed bereft of ideas on how to score goals, and of course it is difficult at this level to hold out the opposition for a full ninety minutes.

Nearly all the moves in this match were one way, with every attempt bar one being on the Palace goal. Jon Macken was the biggest thorn in our side during the first half, and he was really unlucky not to have scored a hat trick by the break. One of his efforts though did count when he got through to a Steve Basham cross and placed the ball through the legs of an advancing Stuart Taylor.

Further chances during the half came when Paul McKenna sent in a cross that Lee Cartwright headed on and Basham was just wide with an overhead kick. Good saves by Taylor following shots from Graham Alexander and Michael Jackson kept Palace in the game, and we were lucky to go to the break only one down.

Something must have worked during the break, for there was a definite improvement in the standard of play from the Palace contingent, though it never appeared that it was really going to be enough.

Mikael Forssell produced what can be considered as our only real chance of the match when he made a good move down the right hand side of the pitch, beating both Sean Gregan and Jackson before advancing on goal where Graham Alexander blocked the shot before it could do any damage. But Preston, who are travelling well in this League following their promotion last season, were not about to throw this match away, and it was McKenna who made sure of the spoils when he hit a great drive from fully 30 yards out which flew into the back of the net.

To cap off a poor day for Palace Mark Rankine saw his shot tipped over the bar and Jamie Pollock was called on to clear off the line following a good attempt from Basham.

For Palace it was a sorry trip home, and Alan will be back to the drawing board. Fortunately we now have a break of two weeks in order to try and get something sorted out. That it is going to take some time to get the new players to act as a team is becoming fairly obvious, but I feel sure things will gradually come right, and a better indication of how the team is travelling will be seen before we get to the Christmas games.

Palace, realistically, will now have to set their sights on a rebuilding season, and hopefully a comfortable mid table finish, with maybe a decent Cup run in one of the domestic competitions. Management still has a job to do, and perhaps we will still see a couple of new players joining the squad before too long.

Colin Pryce

Preston North End: David Lucas, Graham Alexander Rob Edwards, Michael Jackson, Sean Gregan, Lee Cartwright, Michael Appleton, Mark Rankine, Paul McKenna (Iain Anderson 90), Steve Basham, Jonathan Macken (Steve Robinson 83).

Substitutes not used: Tepi Moilanen, Ryan Kidd, David Eyres.

Crystal Palace: Stuart Taylor, Dean Austin, Craig Harrison, Neil Ruddock, Fan Zhiyi (Julian Gray 85), Jamie Pollock, Tommy Black (Clinton Morrison 53), Simon Rodger, Hayden Mullins, Mikael Forssell (Andy Linighan 73), Paul Kitson.

Substitutes not used: Alex Kolinko, Wayne Carlisle.

Attendance: 13,028

Referee: Mr M Pike (Barrow-In-Furness).