Match Report |
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Crystal Palace 2 - 0 Swansea City | |
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Crystal Palace 2 - 0 Swansea City - Peter Charles
The journey home has helped me rationalise this a little, but even so there is little disguising that this was a bit of a shambles of a performance. Rather than seeing the confident and fluent passing team about which we had read so much over recent weeks, we unfortunately witnessed lumpy performances, punctuated by occasional flashes of quality but all too often lacklustre and disjointed.
Almost from the kick off we had a chance to take this game by the scruff of the neck as a ball over the full back sent Scotland cantering through on goal from a wide angle, only for his weak shot to be easily saved. Palace responded a couple of minutes later with a vicious shot from the dangerous, athletic and mobile Paul Ifill (a useful type of striker in this league) which DeVries did well to parry one-handed. Thereafter the half became pretty even, with the Swans attempting to put their passing game together, with mixed success, and Palace taking the more direct and pacy route. Neither side created many clear cut chances, although we contrived to flash a couple of excellent crosses across goal, through Painter and Butler, which no-one in a Swans shirt got near to converting. Palace also swung in some dangerous crosses and nearly broke the deadlock on 24 minutes when Ifill fired in a low shot to draw a smart save from Dorus. Then on 26 minutes an innocuous foul on Scowcroft led to him being stretchered off. This broke our concentration and somehow Watson managed to swing his free kick, from a wide position, right across our goal and with one bounce into the far corner of our net with no intervention from any Swans player. A soft goal to concede the initiative. The remainder of the half remained even in terms of possession and territory, and a paucity of chances. The lively Rangel produced one fine surging run into the box and appeared to be blocked off, although there was little chance of the referee giving us this one. Just before half time the home side nearly doubled their lead when once again Ifill charged through a challenge before striking a low shot which was deflected wide. The ensuing corner resulted in a melee in our box with somebody (Williams?) ultimately clearly off the line. We then produced a neat move of our own after Britton won the ball back and fed the ball to Butler. He cut inside and slipped the ball to Scotland whose snap shot from the edge of the box went straight to the keeper. We made a lively start to the second half, with Scotland showing better movement, and we exerted some early pressure. However, there was more danger signalled on 50 minutes when another Watson free kick flashed dangerously across our six yard box. On 53 minutes, a great run from Pratley saw him slip the ball to Gower in a wide position, allowing Gower to cut inside and fire in our best effort of the day a low shot which drew a fine save from the home keeper. From the corner Rangel fired in a shot which was blocked with an arm, but a penalty decision would have been harsh on the home side. Then in a flash it was the direct Palace back on the attack again as Calvin Andrew burst past our ponderous defence and through on goal luckily for us he showed no composure and flashed his effort wide. This prompted an attacking substitution as Pintado replaced Gower and joined Scotland up-front in an unexpected early switch to a 4-4-2 formation. Pintado quickly showed his intent by firing in a decent effort from an angle which the keeper saved comfortably. On 53 minutes we appeared to have got our reward for this more enterprising approach when a period of pressure seemed to culminate in the ball being bundled over the Palace line, but the referee had whistled for a foul. During this period we appeared to be getting a grip on the game, but this was all undone on 65 minutes when another piece of weak defending virtually handed the game to the home side, with Victor Moses allowed the time and space to fire in a low but weak shot towards the corner of our goal. It seemed easy meat for Dorus, but he contrived only to allow it creep (a la Gueret) into the corner of the net. If we were expecting an all or nothing assault from the Swans to try to recover the game, we were to be disappointed. We failed to exert any real pressure whilst chasing the game and our only effort of note was a low Pratley strike which drew a decent save from the home keeper. In this last half an hour it was the home side which came closest to scoring Ifill had another couple of good efforts and DeVries was forced into a fine one-handed save from Djilali. One characteristic of this spell was that every Palace corner and set piece seemed to cause us problems, whilst our couple of corners were easily defended by the home team. By the closing stages the Swans looked tired and shapeless, with the home side closing the game out comfortably. To compound our misery there was relatively little atmosphere in a modest Selhurst crowd. Whilst the visiting Jacks tried to muster support for the team, it seemed a rather muted event all round. DeVries 6 A poor effort for the second goal Rangel 7 Pick of our defenders, particularly supporting the attack Williams 5 Looked awkward with poor distribution Monk 6 Exposed for pace a few times though relatively strong in the tackle Painter 6 Tidy but not greatly effective moving forward Gower 6 A reasonably sound first half and one good effort on goal Butler 6 Quite dangerous in the first half but faded badly after the break Pratley 7 Our best player on the day, consistently energetic and positive although limited in its effect Bodde 6 Started really well but sometimes wayward Britton 6 As ever, had his moments, but not really enough over the 90 minutes Scotland 5 Failed to hold the ball up and never looked mobile enough Pintado 6 looked aggressive but was frustrated by lack of opportunity Bessone Replaced Painter late on and had little time to prove himself, but may be pressing for a place soon Brandy Replaced Scotland late on and hopefully will soon be pressing for a place on the bus back to Manchester as he seems relentlessly ineffective for us and we might as well save the wages. So what would be the learning points from this one? Dont let ourselves be out-muscled? Dont concede soft goals at set pieces? Dont lose the game whilst we are too busy trying to play football?! It certainly suggested to me that we still need to strengthen at centre half, and a striker of genuine athleticism and mobility would not go amiss. Hopefully, this will all form part of the development of our team. But well come up against many teams like Palace this season, and quite a few better, so wed better learn fast how to deal with them. Crystal Palace 2 - 0 Swansea City - Match Comments - Richard of Warwick
If you search really hard for good things today, you have to say that for half an hour we were the better team. But even though we had plenty of possession we never really got amongst them and made chances except for one that Scotland contrived to hit straight at the keeper with big gaps to aim at each side. But even then we were not looking quite ourselves and Scotland looked isolated with our midfield not clicking and knowing when to get forward at all.
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