Ten Man Palace Dig In And Hold Bournemouth To Draw

Neither team were in top form in the early exchanges of the game, but the referee was the star of the show with a ridiculously inept performance handing out a plethora of inconsistent bookings.  

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 11 Matheus FRANCA, 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 21 Romain ESSE, 25 Ben CHILWELL, 30 Matt TURNER       

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 5 Marcus SENESI, 20 Julio SOLAR, 21 Daniel JEBBISON, 23 James HILL, 40 Will DENNIS

TEB VERDICT

The early exchanges in this game were littered with mistakes and almost made you think that we were in for a dour game, but the referee must have seen that and thought he would add a little spice.

It is not the first time this season that Palace have been on wrong side of decisions by this referee. A second yellow at the end of the second half for Chris Richards could well have been deemed correct, but that came straight after a challenge by a Bournemouth player who themselves were on a yellow card and perhaps should have been treated in the same way.

Regardless, the positive was that the ten-man Eagles put in a dogged rearguard action to keep the visitors out and take a well-earned point.

After conceding ten goals in two games, a clean sheet was a welcome return for Oliver Glasner and his men, but they really had to work for it.

There is very little else to take from the game, and it is a concern how the form has really dipped heading closer towards the FA Cup semi-final, but they will take confidence in adversity and the way the earned a point from the game.

BOB’S POINT OF VIEW

Bob White was a coach at Palace under the tenure of Steve Coppell and Alan Smith and will be sharing his point of view each week in our review article.

“I couldn’t even begin to write a short review of the game without mentioning the officiating. To be absolutely blunt, the referee had a shocker! Sam Barrott was the referee who disallowed Eze’s free kick goal at Brentford at the beginning of this season. His standard of officiating hasn’t improved. Inconsistency was his trademark leaving both sets of fans unhappy with many of his decisions. The two yellow cards given to Chris Richards after refusing to give a clear and obvious second to Alex Scott not long before summed up his performance. The Bournemouth manager was then given the luxury of substituting Scott at half time whilst we played the whole second half with ten men.

Performance wise for our team it was patchy even with eleven players on the pitch. The last two thumping defeats at City and Newcastle had obviously affected confidence particularly in our back line. But it went deeper. There were many misplaced passes and a drop in the intensity levels we had all witnessed in an outstanding run of games since last October. However with a semi-final appearance at Wembley only a week away, it was important to take some positives from the game.

Resilience was the real highlight especially playing the second half with ten players. We defended resolutely as Glasner adjusted our starting 3-4-3 set up to a 3-5-1 formation playing with a lower block than we usually see with a full complement of players. All credit to our players in keeping an invaluable clean sheet to secure a huge point. Glasner will need to manage the players workload carefully with the Arsenal game rearranged for next Wednesday. It’s important that we get back to our usual intensity and rhythm of our attacking play for Wembley.

In summary no specific outstanding individual performances today but arguably one just to celebrate a resolute collective team effort.”

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“I was absolutely pleased with this point especially the way the game was going and conceding 10 goals in the previous two games. To have to play for 50 minutes with one player less, it’s a great clean sheet.

For me it’s how you lead the game and consistency. It’s either two red cards – one for Chris Richards and one for Alex Scott. Or it’s no red cards at all. When you don’t show a second yellow for Scott, you don’t show a second yellow for Richards. This what I felt and everyone felt in the stadium. But you have to deal with situation and it was a great team effort in the game.”

ANDONI IRAOLA

“Before the game it wouldn’t have been a bad point but considering we were playing against 10 for more than 45 minutes, it’s disappointing. We didn’t have the creativity and you have to be super creative or shoot from very far. We couldn’t find the chances.

It feels like a missed opportunity. Two more points would have been lovely for us. But we are still in the fight for Europe. We have to keep going. We have five games remaining and are in the fight.”

MATCH STATISTICS

UPCOMING FIXTURES