Palace 2 - 2 Gillingham

Saturday January 20 2001 - League

Crystal Palace came back from being 2-0 down against Gillingham to snatch a point at Selhurst Park.

Palace only created two chances in the first half. Tommy Black and Mikael Forssell came close, but did not find the net.

Not long before the break, Gillingham took the lead when Mark Saunders headed the ball home from a corner by Nicky Southall.

After the break, the biggest chances were for the Gills with Carl Asaba missing a sitter on 48 minutes.

Saunders made it 2-0 for the visitors on the hour mark. Again with a header, he beat goalkeeper Alex Kolinko.

Then the Eagles came back in the match, scoring two goals within three minutes. First substitute Dougie Freedman scored from an Andrejs Rubins cross.

Minutes later Mikael Forssell made it 2-2 with a low 20-yard low shot into the far corner.

The Eagles dropped one place in the First Division to 15th after this game.

Post match comments

Palace boss Alan Smith said: "Once we got a goal, the lads are young enough to come back for a second.

"Credit to Gillingham, they played a good game and are having a good run, it's good management.

"We've had one hell of a week and it's almost impossible to be on top form all of the time, but I'm happy with the point."

Gills manager Andy Hessenthaler was less happy with his side: We've kicked ourselves in the teeth. The game was comfortable at 2-0 and it should have been 4-0," he said.

"Once Palace got their goal, we seemed to panic and we could have lost it. I can't fault the lads for their efforts but you do lose when mistakes are made.

"I think we lost our shape and it's something we'll have to work on. It's time to put this one behind us and concentrate on our next match against Chelsea next Sunday."

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