Christmas cheer looms out of the mist

With grateful thanks to our guest match reporter: Tony Humphreys of Eagle Pie

How did we win a game in which the opposition might have been out of sight by half-time? The reason is explained by the old adage which begins, “If you don’t take your chances…”. Sounds familiar, no doubt, and although the comparison with the Colchester game is not perfectly accurate, it will do.

The first half was fairly even as far as goal scoring opportunities were concerned. Sunderland dominated possession and continually threatened to undo Palace down our right flank, where Danny Butterfield was not really on his game, but really only created two chances, first when an unmarked midfield player found space in the area but lashed his shot yards wide and then when an astute ball from David Connolly found the Palace defence ball-watching but an unmarked Leadbitter put his shot wide. Palace were also finding decent chances hard to come by, not least because the midfield, with the exception of Fletcher, who was being fairly successful in a combative role, was largely absent. A good run to the bye-line by Borrowdale was followed by a decent cross which fell to the Invisible Man, for once shorn of his bandages, but his shot was blocked. Then Kuqi found the inspiration for a slide rule pass to Morrison, only for his shot to be dragged badly wide. Nevertheless, the lead was eventually established when a corner was cleared to Butterfield, who returned it onto Kuqi’s head and his knock down was despatched into the net by Mark Hudson’s left foot. These two welcome interventions apart, this was another day when Kuqi looked less Blackburn Rovers than Rovers Return and it continues to be difficult to see a million pound player or international player in his inelegant body; no doubting the effort, but precious little skill or finesse.

The second half offered more of the same. Sunderland, prompted by the ever-grey Kavanagh, always being in the right place and doing the right, often simplest, thing, dominated possession to an even greater extent, with Fletcher unsurprisingly fading, but still unable to create a clear opening. Still, they only really played with one forward, the lively David Connolly and he never looked like being able to outwit Palace’s central defensive pairing. When Sunderland did get a glimmer of hope, Speroni was in good form, tipping over an inadvertent header from Hudson and then another from Stanislav Varga. A third header looped just over the bar onto the roof of the net but most other goal-bound efforts were hit straight at the Argentine and he never looked like repeating the gaffes which cost him his place in the team and in the fans’ hearts two years ago. Palace attacks were few and far between, most of the few promising situations being ruined by wayward passing or, on one memorable occasion, by Kuqi deciding wrongly that in a one-to-one situation the best way is through the defender rather than round him.

Sunderland finally gave Connolly some support with too little time to go but by then the pattern of the match had pretty well set, though the referee did his best to change things by a series of mostly incomprehensible decisions on free kicks, all favouring the visitors. Sunderland fans would wonder why they had shown such little ambition up front given their dominance of midfield; while it was understandable at 0-0, once Palace had taken however undeserved a lead, it was surely more sensible to risk losing some of that dominance in an attempt to retrieve parity, if not overturn the deficit. Still, I’m not the manager.

From a Palace point of view, this was a satisfactory result gained from a pretty unsatisfactory performance. Plaudits for the defence and for Fletcher’s first half efforts but the rest of the team ought to take little praise from this. The message from the club’s management is that we have a squad of players which should be much more highly placed. The more I hear that and the more I see, I get less sure.


Crystal Palace Speroni, Ward, Hudson, Butterfield, Borrowdale,McAnuff, Soares, Fletcher, Kennedy (Lawrence 89),Morrison (Freedman 83), Kuqi (Scowcroft 71). Subs Not Used: Flinders, Reich.

Booked: Fletcher.

Goals: Hudson 41.

Sunderland Ward, Caldwell, Varga, Nosworthy, Collins,Whitehead, Leadbitter (Wallace 60), Kavanagh,Miller (Yorke 75), Murphy (Brown 75), Connolly. Subs Not Used: Fulop, Nyatanga.

Booked: Varga.

Att: 17,439
Ref: L Probert (Gloucestershire).


Posted by neil