August 24 2008

Action

Crystal Palace earned a point at home to Burnley with nine players, but how well did they perform?

Speroni 9

Once again he has saved us from dropping more points. A few great saves and none more important than the one in the last minute.

Butterfield 7

Got forward really well the whole game but was caught out a few times defensively by the likes of Eagles.

Lawrence 9

I'm one of the ones who would like to see a Fonte-McCarthy centre back partnership but today was quite possibly the best performance I have ever seen from Matt Lawrence. Won a lot of balls in the air and, especially after the sendings off, threw himself infront of everything and showed just why he is in the team.

McCarthy 8

Very solid performance at the back. Done the simple things well and was good in the air along with some decent passing.

Hill 7

Decent game from Clint defensively but with one or two wild tackes, some might say he was lucky not to be sending off number three.

Derry 4

Two quick bookings saw him sent off but he had a fairly quiet game before that happened. Doesn't seem the same player that we had when he first came back.

Oster 4

Not involved as much in the game as someone in his position should be. All he really did was take one or two free-kicks but was missing for the rest of the game until he was taken off.

Carle 7

Showed some nice neat touches when he got the ball and worked hard when we were down to nine men before he was substituted. However, he didn't seem to get enough of the ball for someone who can have so much influence.

Soares 7

Worked hard all game and didn't stop running. Showed some glimpses of what he is capable of with some good runs but most of them didn't seem to result in much offensively.

Griffit 4

Came into the team from nowhere in front of the likes of Moses and Djilali and had one or two nice touches and runs but other than that he hardly featured in the game and maybe should have been substituted earlier.

Scowcroft 4

Deserved red card for jumping into two places with his arm raised. Didn't seem to win much in the air and when he did win the occasional header, it fell to a Burnley player instead of a Palace player so there was no link up with him and our other attacking players.

Subs:

Andrew 8

Was hugely impressed with Andrew when he came on. Seemed to win more in the air in his first five minutes than Scowcroft did in the whole first half and was a lot more mobile. Threatened the Burnley defence a lot more and done extremely well tracking back to help out the defence and at one point even found himself chasing after someone at right back.

Fonte 8

Showed just why so many fans think he should be in the team. Had an amazing second half or so playing defensive midfield even though he is naturally a centre back and won some very important tackles as well as showing some good, calm passing.

Djilali 6

Didn't have too long to impress but he did show the speed he has which could prove to be very beneficial. Would like to see more of the lad coming off the bench in the future.

Ratings by Liam Connery.

Do you agree? Rate the players' performance here