February 5 2005

Dougie had a good game

Crystal Palace lost vital points to avoid the drop as Bolton win 1-0 at Selhurst Park, writes Simon Pophale.

Hands up all those of us who are sick to the back teeth of Bolton? We never, ever get a result against them, home or away. I remember back in the days of the First Division Championship winning season, we managed to get a 1-1 draw at home and were denied a clear goal in the last minute of the game.

Since 1994 and we have hardly ever given them a beating, or even scraped a win. The last time we were in the Premiership, they hit 6 and we looked awful.

But this was a game that we could, and should have won. With at least 3 clear cut chances in the first half and 2 in the second, this game should have been wrapped up by half time. Had Wayne Routledge decided to shoot rather than attempt to go around Jaaskelainen after AJs superb pass on 8 minutes, or Granville actually headed on target from 3 yards from a Micheal Hughes cross 6 minutes later.

Even AJ had a chance a few moments later, running on to a Granville pass but only shooting into the side netting.

However, then Graham Poll stepped in. He was doing fine until his whistle happy antics started to ruin the game. Indeed, Bolton seemed quite happy to timewaste on goal kicks and set plays, with Poll doing nothing at all about it.

He was adding to the frustration by ensuring the whole world heard his whistles, which were becoming increasing frequent with every passing minute.

Bolton had created a chance on 3 minutes with a Gary Speed header which was well saved by Kiraly. However between then and the half hour mark, there was nothing of note that they had managed to trouble us with. However on 31 minutes Stelios broke into the area after their best move of the match, which culminated after 6 or 7 passes with the Greek International lobbing Kiraly and although the ball was cleared, it fell to Nolan whose goalbound effort was cleared off the line by Boyce, only for the referee to give the goal.

Having seen the Match of the Day technology that evening, it was clear that the whole of the ball had crossed the line. More luck than judgement. Mr Poll, in his first game in charge of us this season, was making no friends. Indeed, for the next 10 minutes, we were chanting "The referee is a ********", " You've only got 12 men" and such like. It changed nothing, as we went in 0-1 down at half time.

There was about as much chance of Poll giving us a penalty when Micheal Hughes went down in the box, than a bunch of meat feast pizzas being ordered at a Bahmitzvah.

Indeed the 2nd half was more of the same. We were outplaying Bolton and indeed, Dougie Freedman was playing an inspired game up front. It was his cross on 58 minutes which AJ sidefooted inches wide. Dowie clearly thought that it was time for a change and brought off Wayne Routledge, for Joonas Kolkka and shortly after this, took off Mikele Leigertwood for Aki.

But despite the personnel change, the result wasn't going to. Freedman cleverly worked space for himself in the box to shoot wide, before a minute later Granville supplied another cross which went inches behind Dougie. It was not his day, or ours.

While the Bolton goal was leading a charmed life, a long pass which beat Emmerson Boyce on the right (indeed, this was the only time that Boyce was beaten in the whole game) saw Kevin Davies shoot straight at Kiraly.

As time ran down, we ran out of ideas and despite a last minute surge, which saw Gabor run to the opposing box and us having a free kick charged down for a corner which saw Granville scoop the ball over from 2 yards out from the resultant kick, it was going to be one of those days, where nothing went right and we were going to end up empty handed.

Bolton had committed yet another smash and grab raid on us and did the double on us for the season.

So other than the lack of goals,where else did we go wrong? Well, Fitz Hall MUST learn that we play in Red and Blue. His distribution was appalling. There is no doubt he is a first class centre back when he is defending. But if he is going to make the step up in class, he needs to watch the Rio Ferdinands and Sol Campbells of this world and see that they are more than just defenders, but they start many attacks as well.

We gave possession away far too cheaply, far too often. Granville and Boyce played well again. Powell worked very very hard but he is no replacement for Sorondo, who will be back next game.

2 players who were back this week were Kolkka and Aki. Maybe by the time we play Arsenal, they will be fully fit and can start. With Sorondo back, we will need them.

Man of the Match : Emmerson Boyce - never put a foot wrong and has been one of the finds of the season. Distribution was good and worked so hard. Whether we stay up or go down, we have to keep him.

Moan of the Match : Graham Poll - whistle happy freak. Never let the game flow after the first 20 minutes.