Palace batten down the hatches

An unchanged Palace side dug a point out of high-flying Preston at Deepdale this afternoon.

An ultra-defensive performance saw Palace stifle and frustrate the North End at every turn, without ever really threatening themselves. Indeed this will be a short report because there was absolutely no decent chances to tell you about.

For brief moment in the second half, Jobi McAnuff looked to have carved an opening only to have Perston ‘keeper Carlo Nash dispossess him all too easily.

James Scowcroft looked like the man most likely to, but then after tangling with various Preston players throughout the first half, earned himself a booking and his game lost some of its edge. That said, replacing him with the completely ineffective Shefki Kuqi, then bringing on Dougie Freedman for Clinton Morrison killed any hope we had of sneaking something.

The defence should be praised for the shutdown, although it was a bit Fred Karno’s at times. Loan keeper Iain Turner’s continues to impress with another calm and confident performance, topped with a flying tip-over deep into injury time.

A result to take heart from, but one with a large element of luck to it.

Palace: Turner, Butterfield, Ward, Hudson, Granville,Hughes, Kennedy (Fletcher 84), Soares, McAnuff,Scowcroft (Kuqi 69), Morrison (Freedman 73). Subs Not Used: Flinders, Lawrence.

Booked: Scowcroft.

Preston: Nash, Alexander, Chilvers, St. Ledger,Hill (Lewis Neal 24), Whaley (Dichio 81), Sedgwick, McKenna,Pugh, Agyemang (Ormerod 61), Nugent. Subs Not Used: Chris Neal, Wilson.

Booked: Alexander.

Att: 14,202
Ref: U Rennie (S Yorkshire).


Posted by neil