A comfortable victory marred only by a dismissal

Palace cruised to a satisfying 2-0 win against fellow mid-table plodders, Ipswich Town, depsite losing Ton Soares to a straight red card with 15 minutes to go.

Without Jobi McAnuff and Stuart Green, both carrying injuries from Tuesday’s game at Wearside, Peter Taylor was forced to reshuffle the pack, Tom Soares being handed a start and Dougie Freedman being recalled to the starting line-up in a forward role as Palace reverted to a 4-4-2 line-up, instead of the uber-defensive 4-5-1 often employed away from Selhurst.

The early exchanges were fairly even, Leon Cort drew a fine save from Lewis Price on 5 minutes and 10 minutes later, Gabor Kiraly was smartly down to his right to block a fizzing shot from Dan Harding that threatened to squeeze in at the near post.

Just after the half-hour, the deadlock was broken as Palace made a spell of pressure count. Leon Cort swept home a powerful header from 8 yards following a Danny Butterfield. It was blow from which Ipswich never really recovered and Mark kennedy and Shefki Kuqi both had good chances to extend the score before half time.

The second half opened with no sign of an Ipswich fightback, Tom Soares should perhaps have done better early on, firing over the bar, but another goal was not long coming. On 51 minutes, the Town defence failed to clear and a persistant Palace eventually fed the ball to an unmarked Paul Ifill, who slammed home a angled shot from 12 yards. There was a small suspicion of Dougie Freedman being offside during the build-up, but as he failed to actually touch the ball, despite trying, the linesman appeared to let it go.

Ipswich did little in the way of a fightback, other than a George O’Callghan shot that Kiraly did well to turn around the post. Palace could have extended their lead further but came up against Ipswich keeper Lewis Price in some fine form. First saving a goalbound Kennedy free-kick then a brillany diving one-handed parry to deny Shefki Kuqi a richly deserved goal, after a bustling run and shot. Before the corner could be taken, it became clear that an altercation had taken place in the centre of the park resulting in Soares and O’Callaghan squaring up. Both were booked, but Soares clearly hadn’t calmed down as a few minutes later, he clattered Harding with a nasty two-footed lunge, that was not only well after the ball had gone but was also off the pitch. The Referee immediately reached for a straight red, although might have also had a word with Harding too, who’s ‘play-dead’ routine mysteriously stopped the moment the card was produced, indictaing that the contact wasn’t quite as bad as it had first appeared.

With 10 men, Palace regrouped to a more defensive formation and to some extent invited Ipswich forward, but even then the task was too great for Town and Palace saw the game out with ease, but precious little style. On the odd occasion by which they did catch the Tractor Boys on the break, they elected to plough a channel to directly to the corner, instead of the goal, which was hardly justified.

The win lifted Palace into the top half of the table for the first time in four months and Peter Taylor continues to talk in terms of the Play offs, although the fans, certainly the ones in our pub, appear to think otherwise.

Palace: Kiraly, Lawrence, Hudson, Cort, Butterfield,Ifill, Fletcher, Soares, Kennedy (Watson 73),Freedman (Borrowdale 82), Kuqi (Scowcroft 85). Subs Not Used:
Speroni, Morrison.

Sent Off: Soares (75).

Booked: Soares.

Goals: Cort 33, Ifill 51.

Ipswich: Price, Wright, Wilnis (Bruce 46), Naylor, Harding,Roberts (O'Callaghan 60), Garvan, Legwinski,Peters (Haynes 60), Lee, Walters. Subs Not Used: Supple, Clarke.

Booked: O'Callaghan, Lee.

Att: 17,090
Ref: M Atkinson (W Yorkshire)


Posted by neil