Wimbledon 1 - 1 Palace

Sat Feb 16 2002 - League

Crystal Palace and Wimbledon drew 1-1 in the derby game at Selhurst Park today.

The Dons' Damien Francis gave his side an early lead from a corner after only seven minutes into the first half. The Eagles levelled the score in the 80th minute when Clinton Morrison scored from a Tommy Black pass.

Wimbledon's biggest crowd of this season turned up for the Selhurst Park derby, with 13,564 coming through the turnstiles of which about 50% were 'visiting' fans.

Ade Akinbiyi thought he had grabbed his first Palace goal when he found the net after only three minutes, but was ruled out offside. Minutes later, Morrison had an effort go into the side netting.

On seven minutes, Wimbledon took the lead. Francis headed home from Ardley's corner, for his first goal of the season.

On 36 minutes, Akinbiyi wasted a great chance to level the game, but he missed a header from six yards which summed up his woeful afternoon.

In the second half, Irish international David Connolly had two great chances to double Wimbledon's lead, but he squandered them both being one-on-one with goalkeeper Matt Clarke.

Ten minutes before the final whistle, Palace got their equaliser through Morrison. The Irish international scored his 19th league goal after Black had set him up.

Man of the Match: Craig Fleming

Chant of the Match: Why don't you f*** off to Milton Keynes!

Post match comments:

Trevor Francis said: "Our chairman told me after the Wolves game that he wasn't confident of us coming from behind after we went a goal down. The statistics show that we never do.

"When we found ourselves a goal behind the chairman's comments were ringing in my ears so I decided to change things.

"We had started very boldly with three up front and I decided to go even bolder with four up there.

"The pendulum swung our way and we got the goal back. I thought the equaliser was merited."

Wimbledon manager Terry Burton agreed the tactical switch had made the difference. "They had more of the play when the two wide men came on and looked more dangerous," he said.

"They started getting crosses in and although they played mostly on the break, they were causing us problems."

From The Terrace Photos

Send us your own match report Click here