 |
| Julian Speroni bleeds red and blue |
We welcome the return of captain Mile Jedinak for this game
as well as former favourite Sean Scannell.
The opening of the play was Palace but there was quite an
odd atmosphere even though the Holmesdale fanatics had played their part with more
wonderful banners. It what was to turn out to be one of the oddest games I have
witnessed, and in front of the Sky cameras. After two minutes Bolasie was
challenged by defender Woods which to me
looked clearly a two footed tackle. A yellow card was shown and Garvan was just
wide with the free kick. Then in the 12th minute Damien Delaney was
given a straight red card for what can only be described as an assault on Huddersfield
striker Darren Beckford. It could have been last man or a dangerous tackle,
take your pick. As the half wore on, Palace adapted well to be one man short
until Scannell went down in the area rather easily from a half hearted
challenger from Joel Ward. Speroni was up to the resultant penalty and saved
the weak effort. Speroni was called upon to make a couple of great saves to
keep the game scoreless. This spurred the lads on and the moment of pure brilliance
arrived just before the half. Attacking down the right, Bolasie and Zaha taking
on three defenders. Bolaise looked unlikely to control the ball but an amazing
back heel sold two defenders and Zaha was free but with a lot still to do. A
few more strides into the area, and then boom, top of the net without touching
the bar. No description can do it
justice, you simply have to see it. Palace went it one nil up.
The second half started to play into our hands, the visitors
really did not look like having much in the way of opportunities and it rarely
looked like we had ten men. But Danny Gabbidon who replaced Garvan as soon as
Delaney was sent off was immense throughout. In fact we had enough chances to
finish the game but then the tide turned as a shot from Southern squirmed
through Speroni’s grasp and into the net. That gave them impetus but that
changed when the referee levelled things up
in the way of numbers when he viewed Gerrard’s tackle on Bolasie as two
footed and handed him a straight red. A lot of huffing and puffing but the game
ended as a score draw.
View from
TheEaglesBeak; This is a blip for sure but you cannot expect a team to win
every game. We are drawing games instead of losing but we are 3rd in
the table as it stands with a Boxing Day fixture at Cardiff. The hard work
starts here to maintain this great effort so far this season. A few additions
in January (and hopefully not losing anyone) and we have a squad to match any
in this division.
01 Speroni
02 Ward (Moxey 53’)
27 Delaney – red card
28 Ramage
04 Parr
07 Bolasie (Moritz 82’)
08 Dikgacoi
10 Garvan (Gabbidon 15’)
15 Jedinak
16 Zaha GOAL 39’
17 Murray
Unused substitutes; 34 Price, 22 O’Keefe, 19 Easter, 24
Appiah
Referee; Scott
Attendence; 17,993
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