23/02/13 League Sheffield Wednesday (a) 1-0 loss

The scene of the crime

Some would call it fate, others karma. But if we'd thought long and hard about the fixture at the weekend then we would have realised that however hard we tried, a loss was already on the cards.

Losing to Leroy Lita's late winner was perhaps undeserved considering that was pretty much the home sides first real chance of the second half. But it is up for debate that if Palace were to be a better first half team then there could at least be in a decent position come the second half when we do turn it on. You do make your own luck in this game but it doesn't always arrive at the right time. This defeat does not hurt us too much, or at least our current position. What it does do is give us three big games coming up in a space of eight days that will confirm what we will be doing. Looking at consolidating our current play off spot or falling out of the picture completely. I do think that we are too inconsistent for the automatic place that is up for grabs but a good winning run may be rather timely. Who knows.

Wednesday dominated the first half but they could not go in to the break with a lead and that looked like it could be their downfall. Palace came out like a powered up Pac-Man for the second half but the onslaught just would not produce. A mixture of misses and some excellent saves from Owls keeper Kirkland kept the score level particularly from a stinging volley from Dobbie.

Boss Ian Holloway said: "We struggled to get our game going and they seemed to have a bit more belief about them than us. The second half was better and we looked the team more likely to grab a goal but it just wasn't to be. I don't think we deserved to lose, but did I think we did enough to win it? Probably not. I felt a draw would have been a fair result."

View from The Eagles Beak: We will take this one on the chin but it is getting to a stage in the season that a defeat at any stage will hurt. Luckily we have a buffer at the moment but that will not last until the end of the season.

01 Speroni
27 Delaney
28 Ramage
03 Richards
04 Parr (Butterfield 88')
07 Bolasie
08 Dikgacoi
15 Jedinak - booked
20 Williams (Phillip 69')
11 Dobbie (Wilbraham 88')
17 Murray - booked

Unused substitutes; 34 Price, 21 Moxey, 12 Marrow, 19 Easter

Referee; Bates
Attendence; 23,475