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City 1 - 1 Crystal Palace
Posted by Tim_Crompton from Cardiff - Published on 18/10/2009 at 00:00
Report By Tim Crompton
The tension between these two teams has not gotten any better since their last game, which saw both Dave Jones and Neil Warnock sent to the stands following a nasty elbow incident between Claude Davis and former Cardiff player Roger Johnson. Palace gave justice to their physical reputation with their players lunging in for tackles and displaying the dirty side of football.
Recently there has been a big thing about players intimidating referees and Crystal Palace’s captain Shaun Derry is a prime example of this. When Alassane N'Diaye fouled Chris Burke on the 26th minute he was rightfully booked for the late challenge. But then when the French midfielder repeated the exact same crime 10 minutes later, he received nothing. This was due to the ranting of Derry who wouldn’t leave the referee, Steve Tanner, alone. Yes, he’s the captain so he has a right to talk to the ref on decisions like these, but only up to a point and at this point he should stop and allow Tanner to make his own decision. For me Tanner had a poor game missing a blatant kick out from Crystal Palace’s Jose Fonte on Michael Chopra, which sparked mayhem in the crowd with rude chants about the ref rebounding around the stands.
Cardiff started the game sluggishly and before they could do anything they were behind. On the 8th minute, Palace right-back Danny Butterfield played a deep cross into the Cardiff box, allowing an un-marked Alan Lee to sneak around to the back post where he met the ball with a free header. Mark Hudson’s attempted block only diverted the ball through David Marshall’s legs and into the back of the net.
Cardiff replied well with a good run from Jay Bothroyd down the right, who hit a low cross to Chopra, allowing him to release a shot into the defender. Then on the quarter-hour mark an injured Victor Moses was replaced by Freddie Sears. Cardiff got a helping hand from Lady Luck on the 18th minute, with a fortunate bounce landing for Burke, allowing him to volley a cross towards Peter Whittingham, giving the Under-21 England international a chance to score his 8th goal of the season, which he did, smacking the ball past Palace keeper Julián Speroni.
Palace replied with a good period of pressure, which was dealt calmly by Burke and Hudson. The second balls were falling to Cardiff and they were using it to test Speroni. A scramble on the 23rd minute brought a good save out of the Argentine after the ball fell to Chopra. Other chances fell to City, with Whittingham shooting just over the bar after an over hit cross from Burke found him on the half hour mark. Then Palace took advantage of a Cardiff attack, involving Mark Kennedy, going wrong. They brook away on the counter attack with Neil Danns running in behind Kennedy, but the English striker could only produce a lame shot, which was easily dealt with by Marshall. Moments later a brilliant far-post cross from Burke gave Whittingham a glorious chance to take the lead. But Speroni had other ideas, diving to his left and pushing the ball, acrobatically around the post. All of this occurred within a minute.
Cardiff had the last real chance of the half, with Burke, Bothroyd and Chopra combining well to put Joe Ledley through on goal, alas the ball was just too far in front of him. Cardiff had been frustrated in the first half, with their shots either going wide or being blocked. But the moment that stands out for me was the foul on Whittingham, which should have produced a second yellow for N'Diaye. On a positive note, Cardiff’s defence seemed to have improved since the opener and were looking a tad more solid than usual.
Palace made a substitution at half time with Sean Scannell coming on for Darren Ambrose. Scannell was a live-wire and used his pace well, but Kennedy didn’t have too much trouble defending against his fellow country-man. Palace got their first corner of the game within a minute of the game starting again and Cardiff were at risk of starting the second half as they started the first. But the ball was cleared and on the 51st minute Cardiff got their own corner. Whittingham knocked the ball to the far post, where Anthony Gerard met the ball with a free-header, only to send the ball blazing over the bar. Then an incident involving Gerard on the 59th minute caused Palace to demonstrate the problem of player’s intimidating refs again as they all charged around Tanner imploring him to give Gerard a card, fortunately Tanner managed to grow a back-bone and ignore the Palace palpitations.
On the hour mark the crowd saw Ross McCormack warming up and got excited chanting all the songs they had made up about him; basically chanting his name over and over and over again. McCormack eventually made it onto the field for Bothroyd, which I personally think was a mistake, due to the fact that Chopra and McCormack played together before last season and it didn’t work then, and it didn’t really work today either. McCormack was lively and played well, as did Chopra but they didn’t connect together or work together like Bothroyd would with either of them. Plus it meant that they would have to change their tactics, which Cardiff don’t seem to be able to do. Without Bothroyd there was no one to aim at with long free kicks or goal kicks and when Marshall got the ball all he could do was punt it up field, just for it to be headed back by the Palace defence.
Then 17 minutes into the second half McCormack managed to hold the ball up and play a cross-field pass to the 17 year old Adam Matthews, who played a neat ball into Chopra. Chopra’s shot was blocked but the rebound fell to him again and he looked up to find Ledley making a late run into the box, unfortunately the ball was played just in front of him and all he could do is stretch a weak shot wide of the post.
On the 68th minute the game really heated up with Butterfield sliding in late on Whittingham, garnering himself an overdue yellow card. Then moments later Fonte kicked out at Chopra. At this point Palace should be down to nine men.
Whittingham managed a good shot from the edge of the area, hitting the ball just wide of the goal on the 75th minute. Palace striker Lee made way at this point to applause from both fans; due to his service for Cardiff from 2003 – 2006. He was replaced by Stern John, who had an immediate effect with a free header straight at Marshall on the 77th minute.
This causes Dave Jones to urge his players on, trying to get his team to up the tempo of the match. And it worked with the game moving into an end-to-end style at a breathless pace. The crowd was really, to use a polite word, annoyed at this point and they were further incensed by a clear free kick that wasn’t awarded on the 85th minute. Burke had played the ball down the line to McCormack, who then cut inside the Palace defender. The defender knew he was beat and held McCormack back, which is a clear foul, yet Tanner and the linesman, failed to see it. Then Jones decided to take the life out of Cardiff’s attack by substituting Burke off for Warren Feeney with three minutes of normal time left. Then a controversial shout for a penalty came Cardiff’s way after a dodgy tackle on Ledley, but it was only half-heatedly appealed for.
The last chance was a free kick just to the right of the goal and a yard out from the penalty area. McCormack and Whittingham were lined up, with McCormack the favourite. McCormack walked up slowly and struck the ball truly. He really did strike it truly, sending the ball over the bar, not worrying Speroni.
These two teams have defiantly become rivals, with the two sets of players squaring up against each other after the final whistle. The Palace captain was at the heart of it, with the officials having to separate him from Chopra. For me Tanner had a poor game and Palace have only enhanced their dirty reputation. It was frustrating game, and I believe that Jones made two mistakes at two vital points, substituting the wrong people at the wrong time.
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