Crystal Palace 2 – 2 Leicester City.

At a tense Selhurst Park prior to kick off a frustrated Ian Holloway promised to ring the changes. An injured Jonathan Parr was replaced by Dean Moxey at left back, and Danny Gabbidon replaced Peter Ramage in the centre of the palace defence. In a revamped midfield KG Dikgacoi was partnered by Alex Marrow who replaced the injured Jonny Williams in the middle of the park. Stephen Dobbie replaced Yannick Bolasie out wide and Andre Moritz dropped out in favour of Aaron Wilbraham as Palace shifted to a 4 -4-2.

The changes gave Palace some new impetus as they tried to put the midweek defeat to Ipswich out of their collective memory. Palace started well but with a nervousness defensively which was understandable given the magnitude of the match on top of recent performances. Leicester was immediately below Palace in the final playoff place before kickoff and was fresh off a midweek win over Bolton. Early on Leicester played well on the break with French midfielder Anthony Knockaert proving the orchestrator for the Foxes attacks in the middle of the park.

Nervousness at the back for Palace meant attack would again prove the best form of defence. It was Leicester’s Kasper Schmeichel who was kept the busier of the two keepers in the first forty minutes. He did well to deny Alex Marrow and tipped a back header from his own defender wide following a Dobbie free kick. Palace was caught for pace a lot in defence as Knockeart controlled Leicester’s midfield play with the size of Jeffrey Schlupp and Lloyd Dyer’s pace testing the fresh centre back partnership of Gabbidon and Delaney. This meant Ward and Moxey had to work hard to keep out Chris Wood and Andy King on the break.

Palace’s current goal drought that had lasted since the beginning of March and over six hours of football ended on twenty six minutes. Danny Gabbidon scored his first goal in eight years. The goal arrived when Zaha won a free kick down the right which was whipped in beautifully by Dobbie for Gabbidon to head home. Yet the first half was even and Palace struggled to calmly play out to half time with the lead. Leicester had already gone close to an equaliser through Chris Wood when Andy King pounced to equalise on thirty seven minutes. Paul Konchesky slipped through a tackle and combined with Dyer to set up King to level the scores at 1 – 1 at half time.

In the second half Palace tried to up the tempo. Glenn Murray went close with a header after being set up by Delaney and Aaron Wilbraham smacked the ball against the crossbar from a Stephen Dobbie cross. Wilbraham held the ball up well all game offering an outlet to Marrow and Dobbie in midfield. Alex Marrow also played well breaking up the threat offered by Knockeart in midfield without ever completely stifling him out of the game. On sixty seven minutes Palace took the lead. Murray laid the ball off to Stephen Dobbie who exquisitely curled the ball beyond the despairing dive of Kasper Schmeichel to put Palace 2 – 1 up.

Again Palace could not hold onto the lead. Having nearly scored earlier in the half through Jeffrey Schlupp Palace was again caught out for pace at the back. Another defensive error this time from Delaney allowed Wood to latch onto a ball over the top, race past Delaney and beat Speroni with a shot to equalise. The game ended 2 – 2 which was a fair result as neither side did enough to win or lose an entertaining encounter.

What on the surface may appear a frustrating draw does have its positives as a performance. Statistically Palace needs five points from their three remaining matches to secure a playoff place. The goal drought is over with Dobbie scoring with a fine strike. One thing that has become clear under Ian Holloway is he favours attacking play. Attack may well be the best form of defence for Palace as they struggle with defensive jitters and mistakes. For the remainder of the season such a tactic that plays to Palace’s attacking strengths will be favoured by Holloway as Palace look to cement a place in the playoffs and then compete to win them.

Palace travel to Ewood Park to play relegation threatened Blackburn Rovers next Saturday.