West Bromwich Albion 1 - 0 Palace

Sunday September 3 2000 - League

Palace went down to an early strike as West Brom celebrated their 100th anniversary at the Hawthorns in style with a win.

Derek McInnes scored the only goal of the televised game after just eight minutes. Lee Hughes skipped past Neil Ruddock before crossing to McInnes whose fierce drive gave Stuart Taylor no chance.

Albion deserved their lead for the first half performance - Bob Taylor had a free header, and Hughes had a one-on-one with Taylor.

But Palace put on a spirited fight back in the second half and were unlucky not to get at least a share of the points.

Leon McKenzie and Neil Ruddock both hit the crossbar with headers, and long throw-ins by substitute Richard Harris caused West Brom all sorts of problems.

Fan Zhiyi had a header just wide with six minutes remaining, but it was not enough.

Post match comments

Crystal Palace boss Alan Smith said: "In the first half we weren't at the races, we needed to ge them in at half-time and in fairness they rallied themselves.

"We've got to get our foot on the pedal from the start. We are a young side and we'll learn from our experiences."

West Brom manager Gary Megson said: "With the chances we had we should have scored more, particularly with the quality we've got up front.

"But they didn't go in today, and I'm not going to start moaning because we got the three points.

"I felt in the first half hour it was our best performance since I've been at the club. In terms of passing and moving I couldn't have asked for anything more.

"I told the players at half time to expect a change in the way Palace approached the game and that's what happened. At times we were penned back in our own box and couldn't get out."

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