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| Palace 0 Wolves 2 07/02/2002 |
| Match Report | ||||||
| Report by Fat Stat
Akinbyi in the starting line up. MMmmmm. After I had put Deck Shoe Wolf's tirade against the big man on this very website I had a bad feeling. Would those words come back to haunt us? After an immaculately kept minutes silence (for a Palace manager who died earlier in the week) the opening five minutes were quite scrappy. Palace had opted for an attacking line up with Akinbyi and Morrison up front and yet another ex-Wolves striker Freedman on the left wing. They certainly wanted to play an attacking game. Akinbyi's first touch got loads of cheers but he gave the ball away; Morrison nearly broke through but Lescott shepherded the ball back to Oakes; and a long ball to Akinbyi was intercepted by Camara (in the right back position) who came away with the ball and even made an audacious back-heel to pass the ball. On 12 minutes a throw in on the right wing by Kennedy was dummied by Sturridge who dropped his shoulder, turned and sent an unstoppable shot in to the top of the net off the underside of the bar. I'm not sure who the defender was, but Sturridge certainly made him look foolish. Perhaps it was Granville - he was certainly "open all hours" (apologies for that appalling joke). After both Kennedy and Camara had sent crosses in that were both too long Palace had their first real chance. Granville burst through and gave the ball to Freedman, whose shot was well saved by Oakes. In desperation Palace started sending high balls into the box, but Lescott was more than a match for them. In fact one of the high points of the half was when Lescott shouldered Akinbyi off the ball and sent a pass up the right wing. Kennedy sent in an early - and brilliant cross - which just eluded Sturridge. Then Rae in loads of space in the middle of the pitch gave the ball to Blake whose looped ball was taken off Rae's foot by their goalie. It was certainly end to end stuff, and Palace were leaving massive holes in their defence. We were certainly looking dangerous. Kennedy was looking on-form and dangerous and Lescott had the measure of both Morrison and Akinbyi. However Camara was pushing too far forward and once he got caught out (letting Freedman have a shot cut out by Lescott) and got told off by Kennedy. I was just thinking that maybe we were getting a bit complacent when a Riihilahti shot took a lucky deflection and fell to their right winger who was clean through, but saw his shot saved by Oakes. Then Newton skillfully sent a pin-point long cross from the right wing over to Kennedy whose shot was just wide. Then straight up the other end a great shot by Freedman was stopped from going in by Akinbyi's bum and the loose ball was bobbling about in front of our open net, but Camara got there just in front of Akinbyi to clear. The half ended with an usual incident, and a brilliant bit of sportsmanship from the Wolves lads. The ref stopped the match for an injury to Cameron's head. From the re-start bounce up Lescott sent the ball to their goalie who fumbled the ball to give us a corner. Rather than exploit this advantage Kennedy put the ball out for a goal kick to them. Very commendable. Half-time 1-0 Keith Andrews came on at half time for the injured Cameron (three stitches apparently). Early on Akinbyi tussled with Lescott in our area, to cries of penalty from the Palace fans. I've seen them given as they say. But not today. The first bit of dangerous play by Akinbyi came when he got goalside of Butler and sent a shot straight at Oakes. A sturridge dummy saw Blake on the edge of their box but he seemed a bit selfish in trying to get himself a shooting opportunity. He really does want a goal doesn't he? Akinbyi then missed a free header and Kennedy was sent clear on the left wing and sent an excellent shot which eluded the goalkeeper but also went the wrong side of the post. Great work from Blake on the left wing culminated with a pass to Newton who - in acres of space on the edge of the box - sent a brilliant shot into the top corner of the net. 2-0. Breathing space. Rae robbed Riihilahti in our half and came thundering up field and passed to Sturridge who was tackled but the ball fell to a determined Rae who passed to Kennedy on the left wing. He was fouled on the edge of the box , and from the free kick Blake smashed a header onto the bar. Will he ever score again? There was quite a bit of Palace pressure, but time and again their attacks were snuffed out, often as not by Lescott. If only his distribution was a bit better. Neat play from Kennedy and Sturridge ended with the ball sent over to Newton who - again in loads of space - this time sliced his shot. A cross by Muscat nearly fell to Blake but the ball just wouldn't come down for him. Our forwards were getting more and more space. Surely a third goal would come soon? Blake nearly found Sturridge with a through ball and then a Kennedy corner ended with a Rae shot which deflected off a Palace defender. Ndah came on for Blake and then Miller came on for Newton. The chances still kept coming. Miller sent through Kennedy who - one on one with the keeper - saw his shot saved, and then Miller and Kennedy both failed to latch on to the rebound. Palace were hardly in the game. However pace and strength from Akinbyi allowed him to send in a cross from the right wing, then straight afterwards - when sent clean through - he messed up his foot work. I think the footballing cliche is that Akinbyi is an "enigma". This was an important win before the weekend, putting pressure on W*** Brom again. It was also a very hard-working and commanding performance. We played our normal game, but with a bit more determination - Palace's attacking tactics didn't pay off. I think Francis played bold tactics and then couldn't go back and pull Akinbyi off because of his egg-shell confidence. I've nothing against Ade but I did think it was funny when he stopped Freedman's goal-bound shot with his bum and then couldn't find the ball. I think the difference in quality and price between Sturridge and Akinbybyee shows that we were lucky that Ade didn't want to come to us. Well done D Jones for finding an absolute bargain. The performance was excellent, except perhaps for Camara's occasional wanderings up field. Sturridge and Newton scored excellent goals. It was such an excellent performance that - to break with tradition - I'm going to name a man of the match. Although many players had a good game, Lescott was a class act. And the result? Sweet revenge for the one-nil defeat earlier in the season. Full time 2-0
Attendance: 18,475
Goals: Wolves:Sturridge (13 mins), Newton (64 mins)
Best Player : Sturridge (3 votes) Lescott (2 votes) Kennedy (2 votes)
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| Average player ratings are taken from a number of newspapers, magazines and web-sites ...more.... |
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