October 18 2006

Crystal Palace centenary

This performance must rank alongside one of the worst the home faithful have had to endure in the past two seasons, writes Simon Pophale.

We have not done well against the teams above us and as we started in ninth, we had lost to three of the four teams that we had played above us.

Sadly, this match was going to make it four out of five as West Brom scored either side of half-time to take the points.

Jason Koumas was a total inspiration and had a hand in both goals. First deftly setting Nathan Ellington to send a right wing cross which Zoltan Gera buried past his compatriot Gabor Kiraly in first half injury time.

Then his incisive ball which dissected our defence on 48 minutes and gave Diomansy Kamara a virtual 1-on-1 chance against Kiraly, which he finished with aplomb for his 3rd goal in 2 games.

Taylor opted to replace the injured Matt Lawrence with Mark Hudson, which goalscorer Stuart Green was back on the bench as Watson moved out wide right and Carl Fletcher returned to action. Taylor also persisted with Scowcroft and Kuqi up front.

Yet, none of these changes had any effect. The entire first half we were on the back foot, mustering 2 efforts of note, Scowcrofts header on 43 minutes which went wide but had Pascal Zuberbuhler scampering across his goal, and Kuqis' horrendous miscue when it looked easier to score as he stabbed a cross from a Kennedy free kick wide.

Meanwhile, West Brom attacked time and again and we looked unable to defend crosses. The amount of times that Kiraly was called into action to stop almost free headers from Paul Robinson, Chris Perry and Nathan Ellington, all fed from the wingers Darren Carter and Jason Koumas, would leave you running short of fingers on one hand.

So when Gera stooped home at the end of the half, he could do so with consummate ease as he knew that we were not coping in defence.

The 2nd half followed the same vein, with only the odd corner showing us any solace as Leon Cort sent a header past the post just before the hour. That was about as good as it got until the hardworking Scowcroft hit a post at the death.

The way we were playing you'd think we were the away side. But there were too many basic errors from players like Watson and Hudson, who gave the ball away too often cheaply.

Hudson came off at half time for Freedman, while Taylor brought on Morrison and Green, the former due to the constant chanting of the Holmesdale, in place of the ineffective and out of sorts Kuqi, who looks like being another big money mistake as the weight of his price tag is surely affecting his performances, and Taylors apparent inability to drop him to the bench.

Both Morrison and Freedman showed enough to warrant a start, as within 5 minutes Freedman had done more than the entire team had mustered all first half. Morrison had the ball in the net in the last quarter of the game, but was adjudged to have been offside.

All in all we were outplayed, out fought and out thought. Taylor must have looked at Carter and Koumas as we did, but we were left to wonder where was McAnuff, Reich and Green? T

he only bright spot was the impressive form of Borrowdale on the left and Soares in the middle, but the boos at the end should say it all. Taylor needs to start making big decisions, because tonight was beyond poor.

Palace: Kiraly, Ward, Hudson (Freedman 46), Cort, Borrowdale, Watson, Kennedy, Fletcher (Green 68), Soares, Scowcroft, Kuqi (Morrison 68).