Barnsley 1 - 0 Palace

Tuesday February 20 2001 - League

Crystal Palace lost their first league game of the year against Barnsley at Oakwell with the only goal of the evening scored by former Palace striker Neil Shipperley.

The Tykes could had taken the lead as early as the sixth minute when they were awarded a penalty after Gregg Berhalter had brought down Isaiah Rankin inside the area. Barnsley's Steve Chettle, however, shot wide from the spot.

Minutes later, Shipperley saw his header being ruled out for offside while, at the other end Julian Gray missed the target from 20 yards.

Then around 10 minutes before the interval, Barnsley found the net when Shipperley headed home a Lee Jones cross which was misgudged by Palace keeper Alex Kolinko.

After the break, Palace tried to step up a gear which resulted in three chances through Tommy Black and Mikael Forssell, but Barnsley goalie Kevin Miller kept a clean sheet.

With 12 minutes remaining, Palace were reduced to ten men when defender Craig Harrison was sent off by referee Jones following a high challenge.

The Eagles dropped one spot to 15th place after this defeat.

Post match bomments

Eagles boss Alan Smith was not charmed by his side's performance against Barnsley.

He said: "I thought it was a fair result. It was a non-event as far as we were concerned. I felt the sending off was a bit harsh. It was ridiculous really because we never made a tackle all night.

"We have had a good run of results, I think that is our first defeat in six games. I wasn't too happy with the performance, which was below what I expect from the players."

From The Terrace Photos

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