April 17 2006

Iain Dowie

Palace drew with Burnley in a goalless match at Turf Moor. Burnley, who had ten corners and hit the woodwork twice, had the better of the match, but the Palace defence stood firm to secure the point, writes Peter Gillman.

Iain Dowie kept key players on the bench and it was Burnley who carved out more openings in the first half. They came closest in the 18th minute when O’Connor outpaced Borrowdale to cross to McCann, whose shot from 12 yards clipped the outside of a post.

Palace had few chances but almost went ahead moments before half-time when Burnley’s McGreal was inches from scoring an own goal after good work by Watson.

The pattern continued in the second half. On 56 minutes Burnley’s Andy Gray picked up a weak back-pass from Hudson. His shot hit the inside of a post and rebounded to a grateful Hudson, who hacked the ball clear.

Palace brightened after the hour when Dowie brought on Hughes, AJ and Dougie. But Dougie, continuing where he left off against Crewe, mis-hit a good chance on 70 minutes. Ref Dean turned down a strong penalty shout against Ward and Kiraly had to make a brave save moments later.

The Eagles’ best opportunity came on 77 minutes when a Burnley defensive muddle let in Reich. He could have passed to AJ but chose to shoot from a narrow angle, with keeper Jensen making the save.

Burnley’s Mahon wasted the final chance of the match on 90 minutes, failing with an ambitious curler instead of passing to colleagues in the clear.

With Preston and Watford both winning, the dropped points make it hard for Palace to finish in the top two play-off places, denying them home advantage in the second leg.

Team: Kiraly, E Boyce, D Ward, M Hudson, G Borrowdale, T Soares, B Watson, M Leigertwood (61 M Hughes) , M Reich, C Morrison (67 A Johnson) , J Macken (69 D Freedman)

Subs: A Johnson, D Freedman, M Hughes, D Butterfield, J Speroni

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