09/03/13 League Leeds United (h) 2-2 draw

Picture courtesy of @JayTheEagle

The bandwagon was well and truly rolling once again ahead teh home game against Leeds. And perhaps a lot of fans were thinking that three wins from three in a crucial three game spell was on the cards.

The visitors from Yorkshire are a hard team to beat as it proved especially with former Palace manager Neil Warnock at the helm. I had a lot of time for him when he was at the club considering my thoughts of him before then were pretty much non existent. But he is a character, just like our current manager. They appear to be a breed of their own and their post match interviews proved such.

The game began with Palace picking up where they left off against Hull in midweek. Several early chances came and went and in all honesty Palace could have been three up before they finally took the lead. It was avery one sided affair and it was Glenn Murray getting on to the end of a cross from Jonny Williams to give the home side the lead. They desparately wanted more for the half to show for their dominance but a mixture of some crude challenges from the visitors and good defending kept Palace at bay.

The second half was quite different and Leeds shocked the home fans by equalising by former Millwall and Norwich striker Steve Morison. It was completely against the run of play and it wasn't long before they took the lead through the same player after what was some poor defending. But the main talking point was Luke Varney. A former Holloway player, who committed GBH on Williams in the first half, did the very same to Dobbie in the second half. And followed that up with a clear dive in the penalty area which finally brought him a yellow card. I was not alone in thinking that each of those should have received a yellow card. It was the vistors who were on the receiving end of the bookings from the referee but in all honesty they were getting stuck into Palace. I don't know what it is about Jonny Williams, he just encourages a good kicking. not only was he a victim of the Varney assult, former Palace target McCormack was at as well. As was  Warnock on Wilf as he was about to stride into the penalty area.

But it all came good in the end. It was Delaney battling for the before just inside his own half, picked it and ran down the wing before sending in a deep cross which was fired home by a waiting Murray to level the scores. A deserved equaliser and perhaps Palace should have had all three of the points. But with Watford losing it was a point gained. It would have been a travesty if Leeds had returned home with the win, contrary to what Neil Warnock thinks.

Boss Ian Holloway said: "I felt some of the decisions had a huge bearing on the game. I thought I saw Luke Varney foul Johnny Williams from behind, a blatant yellow card. Two minutes later Varney dived and got given a yellow card, and he should have been off. Then two minutes later, Wilfried Zaha goes straight through and gets scythed down and Warnock gets a yellow. If that's not a goalscoring opportunity I don't know what the rules are."

View from The Eagles Beak: The undefeated home run stretches to 18 games and Murray hits the 30 goal mark. The last time we had a striker in this form was Andy Johnson and we all know how that season ended up!

01 Speroni
27 Delaney
28 Ramage
04 Parr
07 Bolasie (Phillips 74')
08 Dikgacoi
15 Jedinak
20 Williams (Wilbraham 86')
11 Dobbie (Moritz 83')
16 Zaha
17 Murray

Unused substitutes; 34 Price, 21 Moxey, 03 Richards, 06 Butterfield

Referee; Whitestone
Attendence; 19,976