A second half goal from Jason
Puncheon and a fabulous save from Julian Speroni combined to give Palace a
vital 1 – 0 win at Selhurst Park, moving Palace above Villa and into twelfth
place and virtual safety. Aston Villa came to Selhurst looking for a point and
was ultimately behind the pace of the game with Ledley and Jedinak controlling
the midfield for Palace with Bolasie looking dangerous on the wing and Puncheon
joining him to terrorise the Aston Villa defence.
An injury to KG Dikgacoi saw
Maroanne Chemakh coming off the bench for the second match in succession to
combine well with Cameron Jerome bringing the Crystal Palace attack further up
the field exploiting Jerome’s hold up play to push Aston Villa onto the back
foot. Palace thought they could have had a penalty which was turned down when a
well worked free kick led to Bolasie being felled in the box only for replays
to show he had tripped over his leg and it was not a foul. In the second half
referee Howard Webb awarded Palace a penalty for a hand ball by Nathan Baker
only to reverse the decision after consultation with his linesman. To say the
least the home supporters thought this was another refereeing performance
characterised by mediocrity and average decision making.
Aston Villa was poor and
Crystal Palace had control but without the lead the game remained tight and
Villa was involved throughout although it was Palace who created the clear cut opportunities
with Puncheon and Jerome both striking the post. When it arrived the winning
goal came for Palace in the second half on seventy six minutes with just under
a quarter of an hour to go. Jason Puncheon became Crystal Palace’s leading
scorer this season. He outmuscled Ryan Bertrand to be first to a Yannick
Bolasie cross to turn and score with a neat shot in off the post from eight
yards out.
After taking the lead Palace
gave some of the impetus away as Villa pushed for an equaliser. It was at this
stage Palace could have doubled their lead when Puncheon hit the post. Yet
Cameron Jerome was forced into defensive action clearing a Ciaren Clark header
off the line when Clark initially beat Speroni to the ball from a corner. An
otherwise anonymous and ineffectual Grant Holt spurned a great chance to
equalise before Julian Speroni again starred preserving the victory with a
superb save from a fantastic Andreas Weimann shot. Another example of a superb
contribution from the Argentine shot stopper who had virtually nothing to do
for the rest of the match, and yet his brilliance preserved victory for the
Eagles.
Jonathan Parr came on for
Yannick Bolasie to sure up the Palace defence at the end of the game and saw
out the result with a massive 1 – 0 victory. Palace move to thirty seven points
into twelfth place, clear daylight from the relegation zone. On Wednesday night
the team travels to Merseyside and a battle with on form Everton in fourth and
battling for a Champions League place. Pulis and his Palace team have done a
fantastic job to get to this position and although not yet on forty points it
is in fact Aston Villa now looking over their shoulders nervously at the
relegation battle below them.
The next game over Easter
sees Palace travel to West Ham United for a pulsating South vs East London
derby that could see Palace move ahead of their East London hosts and
neighbours possibly cementing an unlikely top half finish. However with only
Manchester City and Liverpool left to visit Selhurst Park and only Fulham to
visit on the road after West Ham this season a top half finish is likely to
prove difficult to achieve as all the teams Palace have left to play have a lot
to play for in their own right.
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