Entertaining return to reserve action at Selhurst Park

Seeming like some while since a game was played, what with a behind closed doors match last week, and games not played at Bromley, Palace reserves finally returned to action last night (9/3) in the FA Premier reserve league at home to Arsenal.

As half expected - the 2-2 draw turned out to be an entertaining affair, with Palace fielding a strong line-up including players returning from injury and trailist forward Jermaine Beckford who has been the subject of some discussion of late.

The young forward who plys his trade in the Ryman's league with Wealdstone has been training with Palace recently (for the second time), and also spent some time with Chelsea's youth setup doing the same thing a few weeks back. Additionally, Watford are also keen on his signature.

It was Grabban who lined up alongside him in attack, with Wayne Andrews defaulted to the right flank and Marco Reich operating on the left. Arsenal fielding all youngsters, as is the way with most premier league clubs these days, had also played on Monday and included half a dozen or so players who've faced off at this level against the Eagles over the past few seasons.

Palace began brightly, although there was a near scare in the 3rd minute as Hudson was beaten by forward Nicklas Bendtner in the centre, who then chipped the ball past both the on rushing Speroni and the Palace left goal post. Grabban replied for the home side 3 minutes later as he
was away down the right, where he crossed for Reich who volleyed just wide of the Arsenal goal.

Palace had a double chance a minute later. First Andrews hit a low shot at goalkeeper Mart Poom and then from his goal kick Grabban lashed a chance wide. A closer effort came in the 9th minute.

Reich took a Palace free kick from the left, and Riihilahti won the far post headed knock down that saw Popovic react with a shot that touched the far side goal post and go just wide.

Arsenal responded with some good forward positioning in wide spaces, causing a few problems for Fray and Granville (who looked still a little off the pace) but without creating any chances to trouble Julian Speroni.

It was Beckford who started the next attempt, which came on 21 minutes. Stretching a leg, he shielded the ball from going out, and put a left footed cross around the nearest defender that Grabban met from several yards out to put just over the bar.

Then on 26, Mark Hudson twisted his neck to aim a goal bound header from Reich's corner on the left, but it was headed off of the line.

Arsenal finally responded with another chance, when 3 minutes later Bendtner (their best player by far, but with a bit too much of a "Peter Crouch" type falling over habit about him) twisted Granville one way and then the other on the right hand side of the penalty area, before dragging
a shot wide of the other side of goal with his right foot.

Five minutes later, the same player had won them a penalty. Twisting and turning around three Palace players expertly, Bendtner found himself a bit of space to shoot inside the area, but found himself impeded by Popovic's arm as it pulled his shirt back.

The linesman correctly signalled a penalty and the same player stepped up to place a low strike in the bottom left corner of the net for a 1-0 Arsenal lead.

Palace responded postively though and within 5 minutes had equalised, following link up play down the left wing from Grabban and Reich. After a couple of short pass, Grabban
crossed from the left flank, deep to the far right post where Andrews was rushing in and met the ball with a terrific strike across goal on the volley and into the bottom left for the equaliser (now do it for the first team Wayne !).

Speroni was then adjudged to have tipped Bendtner's free kick from outside the area around the post (when the player had gone to ground for the foul), when it looked more like the ball had clipped the post, and the half time whistle then arrived.

Palace responded by replacing Granville and Riihilahti for Leigertwood and Wiggins (which had a positive impact on the side), with both players going on to have good second half
performances. They also appear to have been instructed at half time to play the ball more to Beckford (who'd been on the fringes of play in the first half), and they began to play the ball forward to his feet more, as he peeled off and made forward runs.

So the second period got underway with Palace attacking and Arsenal countering, and began with a Palace corner from the left on 50 minutes that Reich cut back from the edge of the
pitch. A quick snapshot from 8 yards came from Grabban, but Poom was down quickly to his right to claim. After a further 8 minutes, Beckford got into the box and fired a shot just wide of the right hand post.

It was Bendtner again (almost Arsenal's one man forward line) who responded. In the 61st minute he shot wide of the left post as he latched onto a loose ball. Starkey then shot
at Poom for Palace with a low effort minutes later, and at the Palace end, Speroni was forced into a good flying save to his left to block a shot from Jay Simpson.

Arsenal then took the lead on the 72nd minute. Bendtner found himself in space clear on the left, and bore down on the Palace penalty box before going wide past an outstretched Speroni and crossing to the far post for Simpson to blast home for close range to give the Gunners a 2-1 advantage.

However, Palace continued to plug away and only moments later had got another equaliser with a well worked goal.

Leigertwood got away down the left, past two Arsenal players and at the end of his run from the Palace half to near the corner flag crossed low toward goal, where Beckford snapped off a strike at the near post resulting in the ball being blocked for a corner. Reich then beat a
defender with approach work into the area on the left before centring the ball for Hudson to power a header past Poom and make it 2-2.

Following that goal, the game continued much in the same vein for the last 15 minutes, but with only one clear chance, as Reich turned the Gunners Rodgers on the edge of their penalty box and hit a low shot at Poom, who had started to come out of goal.

A decent game, and a decent display from both teams in an entertaining match.

For Palace there were definite positives with the performances of Reich (who looked very sharp), Leigertwood, and a solid display once again from Wiggins.

Young trialist Beckford was a bit un-involved in the first half, and touched the ball probably four times, resulting in him being a bit isolated from play. He clearly can use both feet though and made some intelligent runs at times as he became more involved during the second half. At times he had the better of his young opponents, and made a decent attempt at holding off tackles.

Too early to make any sort of call, and another game or two would be ideal, although other sides have already shown an interest in him so Palace may not have that luxury if they want to retain his services for longer.

Palace Team: (4-4-2) Speroni, Fray, Granville, Starkey, Hudson, Popovic, Andrews, Riihilahti, Grabban, Beckford, Reich

Subs: Leigertwood (For Riihilahti '46), Wilkinson, Peltonen (For Beckford '78), Wiggins
(For Granville '46), Watanabe

Match Stats:

Palace Shots/Headers : 16 (9 on target)
Arsenal Shots/Headers: 6 (3 on target)

Palace Corners: 7
Arsenal Corners: 2

Palace Free Kicks: 8
Arsenal Free Kicks: 9

Arsenal Crosses: 4
Palace Crosses: 12 (8 from left / 4 from right)
(Reich 3, Grabban 2, Leigertwood 2, Beckford 2, Andrews 2, Wiggins 1)

Palace Scorers:
Andrews '39
Hudson '74

*** Palace have also confirmed that April's home reserve fixtures will now be played at Bromley FC. The games affected are:

Tottenham (3/4)
Chelsea (12/4)
West Ham (19/4)
Charlton (26/4)

All games remain 7pm kick off times ***


Posted by alan