December 14 2004

Iain Dowie

When an irresistable force meets an immovable object, you get a stalemate, writes Simon Pophale.

As the hordes of us wouuld attest to, walking down the Holmesdale Road, we were all hoping that AJ and Palace would be the irresistable attacking force and Blackburn would be a easy to roll over outfit.

But the stats and the form was against us. Blackburn have become more solid since Mark Hughes took over, while we have not won since October.

Iain Dowie preferred to stick with the tried and tested 4-5-1 formation, in the hope that we would dominate the midfield and pressure Blackburn into mistakes. It was however going to be a false hope.

Yet none of that was apparent from the kick off, as after only 2 minutes Ben Watson flashed a free kick over the bar with Brad Friedel really nowhere near it. It was a positive sign to us that the players were up for it and that it would be one way traffic all afternoon.

It was one way traffic. Blackburn ran the first half. Steven Reid, Lucas Neill, Brett Emerton and Jay Bothroyd made life very difficult for us. But we were making problems for ourselves. 10 minutes had gone and the defence was losing its head. Hughes passed a ball back to Popovic who surrender possession to Brett Emerton, who shot over.

Two minutes later Fitz Hall gave the ball away in the last third of the field and Emerton, who must have through Christmas had come early, was not able to accept the gift and his cross went begging. With passing like this we were going to be under the cosh for the whole first h alf.

So it proved and the immovable object, much to our relief was Gabor Kiraly.He made 3 outstanding stops in the first half. The first was a great stop from Jay Bothroyd. He then followed this up after Popovic gave the ball away again needlessly to Emerton in the 24th minute near the danger zone, but he failed to make anything of it.

A small pocket of Palace resistance was forthcoming, Micheal Hughes firing a free kick tamely at Friedel and Joonas Kolkka getting another trademark cross, onto the head of no-one in a red and blue shirt.

But the rest of the half belonged to Blackburn, or more importantly, we saw the very very best of Kiraly. His first stop from Reid, who broke on the right was good as he saved with his legs and the rebound from Emerton was pushed around for a corner.

From that corner, Craig Short sent in a bullet header which Kiraly tipped over with his fingertips when a certain goal loomed. We went in at half time just about hanging on to a draw.

I'd like to say at this point that the 2nd half was going to be better, but in truth it was worse. Blackburn still dominated possession, mainly due to the fact that the defences distribution was apalling.

Boyce, Hall and Popovic gave the ball away at every turn, putting us firmly on the back foot for the majority of the match. Barry Ferguson had the best chance early on for Rovers, sending a powerful shot wide. Blackburn fans thought it was in, but I am sure that Gabor had it covered.....

The one real time we forced Friedel into making a save, it was that man AJ again, who latched onto a ball from Wayne and set AJ against Neill, and his shot was pushed onto the post by Friedel. This was as good as it was going to get.

However Dowie had learnt from the previous game against Charlton, and he stated making changes. Aki went off as he clearly was not fully fit and we got our first chance to see Wayne Andrews in Premiership action. Kolkka made way for Lakis and finally Wayne Routledge went off to be replaced by Sandor Torghelle. The changes would set the game alight.

Alight but for the wrong reasons. Andrews was in possession and David Thompson, not long on as a sub for Blackburn, took a swipe at him from behind. Andrews ended up in a crumpled heap on the floor. Thompson, earnt himself the yellow card for his trouble.

With 12 minutes to go, AJ managed to make inroads down the right hand side and his pinpoint cross found the head of the on rrushing Lakis and, like in the Arsenal game, missed a glorious chance heading over with just few yards between him and the goal. A Kanu miss it wasn't but it was a good chance all the same.

Which brings me to Sandor, whose industrious style was seeming to go unrewarded as we still struggled to retain enough possession against a team, who really do look bound to move up the table. Blackburn oozed Premiership zeal but while their passing was crisp and telling, their forward line was, like ours not getting any real chances to thrive on as the match wound down.

With 2 minutes left Torghelle went for a ball with Lucas Neill that was going out, but Sandor did almost go through him and Neill stuck out an arm and poked Sandor in the eye. Having seen replay after replay and photo upon photo of the incident, I don't think that Sandors reaction was over the top at all.

But Neill certainly wasn't going to let this go, he attempted to drag Sandor up, but tempers were already raised. This had been a niggly stop start game not helped by Alan Wileys constant whistle blowing and as a result, frayed tempers boiled over after Sandor was floored. In the melee, Barry Ferguson had given Hall a kick while, Thompson gave a full on swipe, right in front of the linesman.

The fans in the Arthur Wait all saw it as well. If that was not enough, a simulated head butt was enough for Wiley to send him off for a second bookable. He also booked Sandor which, really was not right. Did he overreact? Yes, maybe. Was there contact? Yes there was.

Indeed, other than the AJ chance this was as heated as the game got. But by the restart, the pace was out of the game as it lurched and stumbled to the final whistle.

Man of the Match - Gabor Kiraly. There is a new "King" at the Palace. Without him, this game would have been a lost cause. But our winless streak against Blackburn continues. Dowie stated afterwards that we were poor and that the passing was really not up to standard.

We go to Manchester United next week. Worried? If we play like this, we will get thumped out of sight. Lets hope that Palace that turns up, is the one that did so well against the other top sides. If not, it is going to be a long, bleak winter.