19/01/13 League Bolton Wanderers (h) 0-0 draw

The long awaited return of Dougie Freedman. Some describe him in unspeakable ways. I still consider him a legend. And while there were boo’s when he exited the Bolton team bus, the support from the crowd was thankfully warm. I am proud of Palace fans for that.

Now, on to the game and the opposition haven’t  changed. Still a hard team to beat and a very physical side. But a former manager still could not plot the downfall of Palace. A 0-0 draw was perhaps a little forgiving on the visitors but defensively Dougie has got them organised well. It’s what we can relate to. But they could only just match our attacking flair and we did plenty to win the game, just finishing deserted us from the countless opportunities we had. There is an argument that the referee was poor, he had ample opportunity to hand out a second yellow card to more than one of the visiting players throughout the ninety minutes. But that’s not the game we play, one goal would have taken the points but that just wouldn’t come. Most of the opportunities came from out wide and Zaha in particular. A month in which we’d perhaps rather he was a little more low profile, he was the complete opposite. Terrorising the Bolton back line throughout, they had no answer to him. The Bolton coach was late leaving Selhurst Park after the game. It had nothing to do with the weather, it was more to do with the Bolton defenders untying the knots that Wilf had put them in!

Ian Holloway said: "We start slowly, like my car did this morning but the longer the game went on, the better we looked and I find it hard to believe we didn't win, but that's the way it's going at the moment. So the players are disappointed, we really want to stay in touch with the top teams and go up automatically, so we have to turn games like that into three points towards the end of the season."

View from TheEaglesBeak: Goals were needed on a cold afternoon. The ground staff did a wonderful job to get the game on and it was an intriguing game. I’d have taken the draw before the game so I’ll take it afterwards too ...

01 Speroni

21 Moxey - booked

27 Delaney

28 Ramage (Marrow 73’)

04 Parr

06 Butterfield (Williams 75’)

07 Bolasie

15 Jedinak

16 Zaha

17 Murray

23 Nimely (Moritz 52’)

Unused substitutes; 34 Price, 22 O’Keefe, 18 Wilbraham, 19 Easter

Referee; Madley

Attendence; 17,033