April 4 2005

Selhurst Park

I have fond memories of Palace playing Middlesborough in the Premiership, writes Simon Pophale.

We beat them 4-1 back in 1992-93 season and although we went down, it was one of our biggest Premiership wins. This day was looking to be similar. A nice day, a match in April and Boro in terrible form. Everything was indeed the same, except the four goals.

Boro have had thier injury problems and welcomed back Parlour,Boateng and Viduka. We had lost Boyce and Sorondo, to be replaced by Leigertwood and Hudson. Steve Dunn was the man in the middle, so I will spare you any of the Dunn euphemisms, I think most of them have been exhausted in RefWatch, courtesy of SpikeyMatt.

The opening exchanges were very positive. After 4 minutes, Leigertwood combined with the Doog to set up AJ, but he placed his shot wide. Stewart Downing, always a threat on the left, was starting to give Mikele a hard afternoon as well, Kiraly being alert to thwart an early attack.

Indeed Mark Viduka had a very early and lame shout for a penalty turned down a minute later, when Mark Hudson challenged him. This was the last we were to see of Viduka, as he ended up on the sidelines moments later, with his subsitution being confirmed shortly ater that. McClarens' bid to rush him back into action had failed, with Szilard Nemeth replacing him.

With Boro starting to assert themselves, the responsibility of goalscoring now fell to Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink, who was a real thorn in our side in August. Under pressure from Hudson, he got away from him and rounded Kiraly but dragged his shot wide of the right hand upright. The warning signs were there.

Indeed in the 20th minute he was adjudged to have been offisde, Hudson again being caught out by the wily Dutchman. For his part though, Hudson had made 2 or 3 quality challenges on Nemeth and JFH and his distribution was accurate and slick. Having been one of the victims after the cull of 6 matches, he was putting in a really decent performance.

After these scares, we mounted a challenge of our own. AJ picked the ball up in the final 3rd of the pitch and looked up and from 20 yards sent a shot which went crashing against the right hand post, with Schwarzer nowhere. AJ picked up the rebound but only managed to weakly fire straight at the Boro keeper.

But other than a 30 yard Wayne Routledge run, that was it. We had lots of possesion in the first half, but could not turn it into anything positive. However we were caught with a trademark sucker punch which no doubt left Dowie fuming and sent the silent Boro fans into raptures.

It was the most simple and most obvious threat that Boro have, which has been seen on more than one occaison this season. Downing floated a corner over from the right and his cross was met full on by the on rushing Franck Quedrue. Simple, obvious. 0-1.

In fact, it could have ended 0-2 at half time had Ray Parlours' cross found a Boro shirt. Downing played in Hasslebaink again and the ball was well saved by Kiraly but only as far as Parlour, whose cross was met and cleared by Fitz Hall. The general panic that Hasslebaink was causing, only served to remind how important Sorondo has been for us in the last weeks. I hope he will be fit next week.

But back to today and the 2nd half was no better than the first. In fact the imaginative long ball or lofted pass was meat and drink to Southgate and Riggott, who won everything against Freedman and AJ.

Indeed, the match petered out as a contest as while Hughes and Aki were winning slowly the midfield battle and Wayne Routledge was switching sides with Soares, to good effect as the inexperienced Soares seemed to buckle under the pressure, there was to be no reprieve.

We never looked like scoring and even when Dowie took off Aki to be replaced by Andrews, threw Hall up front and hoped, we just looked out of sorts. Our only real chance of the half came at the death, Routledge and Hughes combining well down the right and Waynes' cross, was flicked on goalwards by AJ. Sadly, it took the slightest of deflections of Riggott and went inches wide, with Schwarzer relieved.

Which was only a tiny fraction of the relief with which the Boro fans greeted the final whistle. The most sickening of results had come to pass. Another defeat against a team which had lost to Southampton the previous game. A match we HAD to win.

But it is over now, so we look ahead. No doubt Dowie would have been thinking these things as he trudged off the pitch. But all of the post match sombreness was turned to anger as Wayne Routledge threw his shirt to the ground as he walked off the pitch. Suddenly what could have been a moment of petulance on behalf of youth could be interpreted as a poor attitude.

Wayne is only young but his actions spoke volumes. I was disgusted as so was all of the Holmesdale who were left to see it. Will he be picked next game? Let's hope Dowie can make some bold decisions in the coming weeks, our Premiership survival depends on it.