September 23 2019

Eagles blitz Wolves in second half but advantage was cancelled out at the death

Rainy, autumnal weather arrived in south London for the visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Jamesey witnessed a game of dramatic twists, ending in a 1-1 draw.

When you’ve been watching football as long as this supporter, it sometimes strikes one how clubs that once were top attractions now languish in the lower divisions.

Wolverhampton Wanderers were one of the first teams I ever saw in the early days of televised football and I can well remember when they were a major name in our sport and we eagerly viewed those muddy, black-and-white pictures on our screens when they played various European teams.

That is not to say the club is a small one now, although they are currently languishing in the top-tier drop zone.

Nevertheless, we have never been averse to helping out strugglers with a point or so at Selhurst, as turned out to be the case here with suicidal Eagles tactics in the last few seconds of injury time (Sept 22).

The first half was fairly even and, after the first-half horror show at Tottenham last week, was quite encouraging, although the visitors probably edged it. They appeared to concentrate on the weakness of the Eagles’ right flank where Joel Ward was frequently left floundering. More of him later.

At least it was 0-0 not 4-0 at HT.

Right at the start of the second period, after Wolves seemed to have cleared their lines, Ward came bombing in and looked like he had scored a corker. All was forgiven by this supporter although it was later given as an own goal after a big deflection.

The home side looked enervated by the goal and pressurised Wolves although more top-class keeping from Vicente Guaita kept the visitors of the scoresheet a few times.

Jordan Ayew looked lively and the Gary Cahill/Mamadou Sakho axis was solid.

Since all the summer transfer shenanigans, Wilfried Zaha has returned to some of his bad habits, unnecessarily losing possession time and again.

Christian Benteke came on to replace Ayew and, as usual, missed a couple of excellent chances. Unfortunately so did Jeffrey Schlupp.

As the game neared its end all the Eagles had to do was sit tight for a 1-0 victory. That proved too much to expect and in the dying seconds, Zaha tried to be clever and gave the ball away, allowing a last-ditch attack. Ward missed a routine defensive header and it was 1-1. Absolutely gutting.

Palace are at least mid-table for once. We can sometimes be talking about relegation as October approaches.

The real worry is, of course, Palace’s inability to actually score goals. Out of the measly four league goals this season, only one has been put in by a striker. The others are down to a full-back and own-goals.

Hopefully Roy and Ray can start to remedy that soon or it will be a repeat of the usual worrying scenario.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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