He looked like a small child up against the wall that is Maguire. He is clearly too lightweight to hold the ball up and when he did get through on goal he was generally offside. His lack of confidence showed in the first half when he got in behind the defence and ran away from the goal thus reducing his shooting angle (to save his blushes he was called offside) and then when Townsend laid it on a plate and he side-footed it like a gentle six-inch golf putt.

He hasn't looked happy from day one and I think this is affecting his game. You can't really fault his effort yesterday as he did not stop running, but Sorloth did more in 10 minutes than Ayew achieved. In hindsight Sorloth perhaps should have got the nod, but neither has exactly been lighting the pitch up.

I thought he was totally knackered after his last run, chasing down to the corner flag. He seemed to be breathing very heavily and I wasn't surprised when he was taken off immediately afterwards. He did seem surprised however, suggesting he is not aware of his own limitations.

The right place at the right time

I watched some footage of him when he was playing for Swansea against us. He was chasing down our defence at every given opportunity. Creating chance after chance, I don’t see him doing any of that in a Palace shirt.

In fact if this is the best that Dougie Freedman can do, he should leave as well...

Shane Long is on the books of Southampton.
He has scored a mere 8 goals in his last 100+ appearances.

To be fair he was only ever signed as a 3rd or 4th striker and at the time seemed good business. However, not having Benteke or Wickham has exposed him badly.
Yesterday he was up against the current England centre back and his lack of confidence has made him totally shot shy and hesitant. What he needs is a couple of goals and he might have a role to play for us before the end of the season. Sadly, getting these goals looks unlikely.

So, we are waiting for Tekkers and Connor. Will they make a difference? I would love Connor to succeed after his semi-final goal v Watford and his two-year battle for fitness. As for Tekkers, we know he can't score - but does he win and lay off enough balls to strengthen the attack? Can Wilf and Andros feed off him? It would be great to see Wilf operating wide again, instead of as a makeshift striker.

The right place at the right time