Next Match: Scunthorpe United (A) Tuesday 28th September 2010

Saturday 13 March 2010

Wasteful Reds share spoils with plucky Palace

On Saturday morning, I was taken by that horrible feeling in my stomach that we were going to be beaten. I don't know why; maybe I still hadn't fully recovered from that mauling at Newcastle last week, but I was genuinely worried. That said, I always am on the morning of the match so I don't think it actually means anything.

The sun was blaring when I opened the curtains, and even though it was still fairly chilly, it felt like a top day for football. The girlfriend had already set off long ago to Swansea, so I'd taken my chance to get a nice lie in ahead of the game. By the time I was up and ready to set off, I was feeling a bit better about the whole day. I still couldn't see us winning though.

We only stopped in the pub for a couple, since we've had a few hectic weeks recently and have got a couple coming up too. Unfortunately we didn't spot many Palace fans wandering around the place. It's a shame really, I always like having a chat with the opposition; see how they feel about the state of their season. Anyway, we made our way down to the ground, with me still worrying about the outcome of this one. It's fair to say that safety is far from guaranteed for us just yet, and with Palace sat behind us in the Championship table, it was a good chance for them to pull us back into the dogfight. Yep, it's fair to say I was fearing the worst.

The performance on the pitch was far from the worst we've seen this season, and I do think we were rather unlucky not to have taken maximum points from this one. We made plenty of chances, but seemed to lack the clinical finish, the final touch in the final third. Players seemed to panic whenever the ball dropped in good positions. A bit more composure and we could have cantered through this one, but sadly we know it's never that easy.

In the first half, we made most of the running, although how many people thought that header by Alan Lee was sneaking in the back post? Palace are still desperately claiming it went over the line, although it didn't look like the case to me. Credit to David Preece for making the save, it was a very good stop and went a little way towards redeeming himself following that horror show at St James Park last weekend. Overall, Boggy, Hammill and one or two others could have seen us going in at half time leading. On the other hand, a couple of outstanding blocks and tackles from Hassell maybe saved us at the other end too.

Second half, for the most part, we dominated, but again lacked the cutting edge to breach the Palace goal. In fairness, whenever we did our bit right and worked the keeper, he was more than equal to it. I thought he played well, Julian Speroni, and he kept them in it, particularly as the game wore on. It was always going to be one of those days when Macken did all the hard work on the byline, before squaring to the brilliantly placed Teixeira, who blazed his effort wide with the whole goal to aim for. By that time, most of us had given in on the hope of 3 precious points. The nightmare substitution kept everyone interested for 5 minutes or so, whilst people try to figure out who the Hell was coming on and going off. Even Alfie looked confused as he took his jumper off and had to stick it back on again. That's entertainment.

Man of the match went to Bobby, which was fair enough. He was solid throughout, and made a couple of decent blocks to keep Palace at bay on the rare occasions they threatened us. Overall, as I said before, I didn't think we'd played so badly, and deserved more than a point. Palace came with a game plan and executed it well, so credit to them.

Also, Trevor Kettle deserves a mention, for making up for his dreadful first half performance with a solid second half. At times, he threatened to lose control of the match, but just about redeemed himself. It was his best performance at Oakwell, although it was never going to take much beating in all honesty.

That night was spent watching the Football League show. It was a noble effort from Claridge and co., who managed to show one chance which had already been flagged for offside and wouldn't have counted, and also managed to get Boggy and Shotton mixed up, which is no mean feat given some of the glaring differences between the two.

So next it's Forest on Tuesday night, and I feel a little better about that one now. Our record against the top teams is much more consistent, so hopefully we can provide a bit of a shock and take another step towards safety before our big clash with Ipswich, which I'm buzzing about already. Although I still don't feel confident about that one either. Maybe it's just me.

Thanks for reading.

1 comment:

  1. Thought both teams were poor and we should have got at leasta couple, not a great game though. Hope its better on Tues!

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