August 19 2007

Clinton Morrison

Crystal Palace continued their unbeaten start to the season but only due to a Clinton Morrison injury time equaliser, writes Simon Pophale.

Peter Taylor reverted to a similar line-up as the opening match with Morrison and Jamie Scowcroft up front. With no Ben Watson (injured), Jose Fonte came into the side to start a league match for the first time.

The first half was one of lots of huff and puff, with both teams battling hard in midfield. Leicester, now managed by Martin Allen, looked disjointed up front while their defence was marshalling Scowcroft and Morrison better than the Southampton defence did a week before.

Both keepers were relatively untroubled in the first 25 minutes. Scowcroft shot wide following a ball from Tony Craig.

The game came to life on the half hour mark when Morrison was up-ended just inches outside the box by Patrick Kisnorbo. Referee Russell ordered a direct free-kick, which Stuart Green despatched into the bottom corner with Marten Fulop having no chance.

We could have gone two up minutes later, Scowcroft won the ball from McAuley and his ball to Mark Kennedy found Morrison, whose audacious back-heel fell right into the path of Matt Lawrence, but his shot was pushed wide by Fulop.

We were on top and Leicester might have been grateful for the half-time whistle. However the second half was a different story. Allen brought on Iain Hume for the ineffective Mark De Vries and clearly had words at half time and they seemed to work wonders as Leicester took the game to us. On 50 minutes, Shaun Newton set up Alan Sheehan but his shot flew over the bar.

The tide was turning Leicester’s way and Clemence had a shot deflected off Mark Hudson from the edge of the area, which looped over Julian Speroni but the Argentine pulled off a stunning reaction to tip the ball over. Newton then headed wide but the signs of us holding on to our lead were growing ever slimmer.

Leicester managed to draw level in the 63rd minute. A corner from the left was headed goalwards by Kisnorbo and despite Speroni pulling off a good save, the ball squirmed to DJ Campbell who touched the ball over the line to equalise.

Mark Hudson headed straight at Fulop from a Kennedy free kick on 68 minutes before Taylor took the gamble of putting on 2 strikers for 2 midfielders as Kennedy and Green were replaced by Kuqi and Freedman, to the surprise of the 15,000 crowd.

It was a gamble that looked to have backfired as with 4 minutes left, we conceded again and it was another set piece that led to the goal. A Clemence corner from the right was met by an unmarked Kisnorbo as Leicester threatened to take all 3 points and condemn us to our first defeat of the season.

Morrison however ensured that it would be honours even as following a Butterfield free kick, Morrison stabbed home from close range after Leicester failed to clear the ball, two minutes into injury time, his 99th in our colours.