Palace 1-1 Barnsley, Another Good Point

Yeah, so it’s three draws in a row. So what? We can all be happy with this point. We showed a lot of promise in the first half, but needed to score at least 2. Warnock strangled the life out of the second half, making for 45 minutes with one of the chief entertainments being the quest to keep warm in the sub-zero temperatures.

The first five minutes of the game were exhilarating. Within 30 seconds, Bogdanovic found himself 10 yards free of the defenders, only to hit a weak effort too near the keeper. Perhaps he’s like a lizard, and needed time to warm up. Victor Moses didn’t though. Right from the start he left defenders standing on the spot as he drifted past them, Shotton’s lunge on 67 seconds was out of desperation. But, Darren Ambrose to the rescue, as he froze under the pressure, his penalty passing yards over the snow drifts behind the goal. Note here that if it had just dipped under the bar, Steele would easily have reached it. Talking of Steele, his performance warmed our hearts, as his saves left the Palace attack out in the cold. Several times he tipped headers over the bar or got down low to gather a drive. And this is still the first ten minutes. Does it calm down? Lord no. Time for an early present from Clint Hill. Anderson turning up the heat on him, he loses possession in a dangerous area. A simple through ball later, and Boggy remembers how to shoot, past Julian Speroni.
The rest of the first half was entertaining, if largely uneventful. A handful of chances for both teams, but nothing really clear cut. But, there was a lot of good football played. Having a pitch that should really have been frozen given the temperatures didn’t affect our passing too much, even if certain individuals struggled (Bogdanovic, Anderson, Colace). On the other gloved hand, Emil Hallfredsson didn’t really seem to care, like many of the English lads (Hassell, Doyle).
Second half, and Warnock puts the freeze on our passing, even sacrificing the few pockets of danger Palace still provided. Talking of Palace danger, I would advocate renaming the Eagle’s attack the Victor Moses Show. Players like Ambrose provided little threat, while the teenager was scintillating. Was anyone honestly surprised to see his bicycle kick sail past Luke Steele? But as I said, Warnock managed to even shut Moses down. He dropped full backs and midfielders deep, and increased level of pressing. He strangled the life out of a spirited game, making for a boring half. A free-kick here, a corner there, it made for poor stuff. The only real time I thought the dead lock was broken was as Hallfreddo’s curling 30 yarder was barely tipped over by Speroni.

I think that a draw was a fair result. The atmosphere was OK, probably helped along by everyone standing and jumping to keep a little less cold. Statistically, the two sides are as equal as you will find, on possession, shots etc. That is a hallmark of a stifled game.
Our defense rarely melted under the heat of attacks, and stopped dead all players really, apart from Moses. He’s uncontainable when on form, and will surely leave for the Premier League in January. The Steele-Man looked bang on form, making some great saves, most notably one fantastic reaction stop from a close range Clint Hill header, mere minutes before Hill allowed Anderson the ball fro our goal. Moore played very well, and was, surprisingly, the only defenders never beaten by Moses, mostly because he never let the ball be knocked past him.
The midfield struggled fro the second. Colace found it even more difficult than usual to get stuck in, but I don’t blame him for that. Doyle did well beside the Argentine, and we certainly want him back. Anderson and Hallfredsson both produced some good moments, and held some good possession. Anderson looked relieved to go off and get warm.
Who can blame him for that, Boggy was also happy. He played averagely actually, not getting too involved, even though he scored. Gray did some good link up play, but found little space and rarely got to face goal. I think if a department must be blamed for not winning, it is the attack. If there’d been two goals scored in the first half, Warnock couldn’t have frozen all our attacking assets in the second.

Palace looked decent for large spells, although our defence would never have allowed a normal standard goal, and it took a flash of brilliance to get it. A typical Warnock team, honestly. It amazed me that he was happy with a draw, and didn’t push forwards to get another, but maybe our class prevented that. I can see them having a good season, and wouldn’t mind some success from Selhurst. Friendly fans, albeit with slightly too intimate stewards…

Ratings
Steele: MOTM 9- Reaching Bicycle kicks is very hard due to their arc. He saved a lot of great shots, and earned us a point.
Shotton: 7 – Bad, bad news. His booking means that he will be suspended for his final game before loan expiry. Not good, I really need to see him playing for us again.
Hallfredsson: 7- Iceman no feel cold.
Doyle: 7 – Sounding more and more like we are in negotiations about a return for Nathan Doyle, I hope they don’t fall through.
Boggy: 7 – Looked, oh, so cold…

It was a crap game of football, and that’s the truth. By the whistle everyone was relieved to go get warm. But, we’re lucky it happened at all. The ground staff succeeded where those in Plymouth failed, and worked hard to get the game on, despite no under-soil heating. Well done lads, good job. Robins is right, it was an awful game, and we didn’t have the right energy levels. The start was probably more enjoyable than the entire rest put together.

So, the last game before Yule-tide has now come and gone, and it was inevitably going to be a lethargic one. Onto boxing day, and two games with a weakened squad before the January sales.

Category: Match Reports