July 30 2005

Crystal Palace

So that's it, pre-season is over. After all the Inter Milan hoo-ha, this game against newly-promoted West Ham was to be the finale of the undercard before the main event - the Championship, which starts on Saturday, writes the Saint.

Sadly, this game ended up being a damp squib compared to Wednesdays offering.

It isn't because the standard of the opposition was lower, just the all round demeanour of both teams performance wont have added anything to the knowledge of Iain Dowie and Alan Pardew.

Fact is that Pardew has one more week to get it right. Dowie now must know what his best side is for the home match against Luton Town next week. We will need to get a good start, no question.

However a good start was exactly what we didn't get in the first half as in the opening 10 minutes, West Ham asserted themselves on the game. In the first minute, Paul Konchesky made inroads on the left and his pass found Matt Etherington, whose cross was cut out by Mark Hudson.

Hudson had to be on hand again 3 minutes later to cut out a cross, this time from the right which Nigel Reo-Coker drifted in after being set up by Marlon Harewood. Despite Koncheskys' numerous runs down the left, and Etherington making a general nuisance of himself all over the midfield, Kiraly was not tested until from yet another Etherington cross, he safely gathered on 12 minutes.

Andy Johnson, was being well marshalled and in front of Sven Goran Eriksson, saw his first effort comfortably saved by Roy Carroll on 13 minutes. AJ never plays well in front of Sven and today was proving to be no exception.

As the first half went on, West Ham were forcing more of the chances, with Harewood pulling a great save from Kiraly on 26 minutes as his shot from a free kick was pushed around the post by the big Hungarian.

5 minutes later, it was Carroll who needed to pull off a save, as from Ben Watsons' corner, a mid air spectacular scissors kick was well saved by the Northern Ireland stopper. But it would be the visitors who were to draw first blood as Reo-Coker set up Marlon Harewood, whose cross from the right found Etherington who couldn't miss from 6 yards. 0-1.

Harewood himself could have added a 2nd as a 20 yard run ended with him falling over in the box, when well placed to score. But that was as good as it got in the first half as we went in a goal down.

2nd half was not much better in terms of quality. In fact it was pretty dire. This was a preseason match and as such, the 2nd half was used more to give players a run out to see what they could do.

The match itself ended up being a practice game, with no side really managing to break the other down. Dougie Freedman was working his socks off after coming on for John Macken at the end of the first half, while Wayne Andrews, now being deployed on the right side of midfield had a couple of crosses blocked and also fired a chance wide.

But for all of Freedmans' endeavour, with Micheal Hughes tigerish tackling lighting up a midfield battle, which had gone stale the moment the match restarted. There was more endeavour coming from the fans in the latter stages, than on the pitch. West Hams' "We are Premier League" was met with our offering of "Premier League, you're having a laugh" but the reality is that while they might be Premier League and we are in the Championship, there was little between the 2 sides in terms of quality and desire.

We didn't look to be a week ahead of West Ham in their preparation though. Sheringham gave Hall, Ward and Hudson a game despite his advancing years and it is easy to see why West Ham finished at the top end of the division last season as going forward, Harewood, Reo-Coker, Sheringham and Etherington all played well today. Whether they can in the Premiership, will be what Hammers fans will be wating on and now, demanding.

The postive points for us (not that there were that many) was the form of Darren Ward, Jobi McAnuff and Dougie Freedman. All shone again and showed that they have more than enough to compete at this level.

Freedman certainly looks ready for another 20 goal assault, which would take him into the top end of the all time scorers list, catching up with Ian Wright and Mark Bright. Aaron Fray looks like one for the future as he had another solid game once he came on, while Danny Butterfield seems to be over his injury problems that ruined his chances of making a Premiership impression.

Dowie may not have been overly impressed with what he saw today, but he should know his best team for next week now. No-one really added to their reputation from the earlier friendlies, except maybe Micheal Hughes, whose introduction brought applause from both sets of fans. He did not disappoint either, throwing himself around the midfield as if his career depended on it.

My only concern is Mark Hudson, who started well but faded as the match went on. Tony Popovic again looked solid and Julian Speroni had a comfortable 20 minutes.

But we didn't learn too much at a rain splattered Selhurst today, except that we will need to be ready to prove that we are the best side in the divison come next week.

Practice makes perfect they say but on todays performance, both sides have some way to go if the expectations of the 10,400 who were served up the low quality fare on offer today are to be realised.