Reserves falter against Saints

Palace reserves failed to apply further pressure on League leaders Charlton after coming to grief at Southampton's snow-dusted training ground tonight.

Southampton fielded a young side whereas Palace had a team full of fringe first teams. The contrast in attitudes was marked before the off. Saints trotted out seemingly up for the challenge, whereas Palace ambled out casting disgusted looks at the snow covered pitch. More than one person there commented on how Palace simply didn't look up for it.

And so it proved in the first 20 seconds, Palace barely touched the ball after Saints took kick off before rookie centre forward Leon best had wriggled free on the right and fired a firm, but very saveable shot through the despairing grasp of Julian Speroni.

It was the rudest of awakenings, but to be fair, Palace knuckled down immediately and should hav ebeen level within a minute. Wayne Andrews was put clear on the left of the 6 yard box, but an awful first touch off-balanced him for the resulting shot was wide and woeful, when it looked easier to score.

Palace, playing with the slope, pressed on. Torghelle made some superb knock-downs and flicks, but his anticipation was somewhat lacking when chasing back. Wayne Andrews was busy, although his first touch kept letting him down. Initially Lakis and Kolkka looked lively on the flanks, but the Greek's insistance on cutting inside instead of crossing to waiting forwards proved an irritant. The Finn was unlucky to be flagged offside in a skilful move which saw him put clear on goal. The Linesman on that side was guilty of some dubious offsides all night.

All in all, Palace played some neat and quick football on the icy surface, but all too often the final ball was a let down. Too near to Saints steady 'keeper or crossed too deep over the heads of the strikeforce.

At the other end Southampton had little to offer, but managed to stike a post when Speroni, dancing like a cat on hot bricks, neglected to come for a flosted free-kick and the unmarked Tessem powered a header downwards past him. Thankfully the ball struck the woodwork and was frantically hacked away.

The half ended on a sour note when the overly officious referee booked Kolkka for booting the ball away after an offside decision, despite having just let a Southampton player off for the exact same thing. Popovic clearly said something about this as they trooped off for half time, not the wisest move, given that he too had already been booked for back chat and the Referee threatened him with explusion. Poppa backed off, but Iain Dowie came onto the pitch to continue the discussion and also made his feelings known about the Referee to the Palace fans during the break.

The second half continued where the first left off, Torghelle saw a goalbound header deflected away for a series of corners. None of which were particularly inspiring, either failing to clear the first man or too deep - rather like the first team, in fact. The one time they tried something different, Lakis almost scored with an inswinger. When Andrews spanked the post you sensed it wasn't going to be our day.

On 65 minutes, Southampton went further ahead, a seemingly tame shot from Condesso slipped underneath Speroni and some players simply went missing. Lakis, Kolkka, Watson and Torghelle were nowhere to be found. Danze was forced too deep to execute some of the neat passing he'd displayed in the first half. On 72 minutes, however, and somewhat against the run of play at that time, Palace pulled one back, the neatest passing move of the game saw Danze, on a rare foray forward, head home a deep cross at the far post.

Palace were briefly enlivened by this but didn't have enough about them to get anything more. Kolkka found himself substituted when his temper threatened to boil over after being roughly tackled. In the last five minutes, Wayne Andrews, our most industrious player on the night, turned his ankle in a challenge and was forced to hobble off.

Palace (4-4-2): Speroni, Butterfield, Togwell, Popovic, Borrowdale, Lakis, Watson, Danze, Kolkka (Hall 75), Torghelle, Andrews (Dolan 85) Subs not used: Wilkinson, Berry, Wilson

Posted by neil