Guessand Nets Winner To Ease Pressure On Glasner

Relegation threatened Wolves came to town with hopes of heaping more pressure on Oliver Glasner, but it was the Eagles who took their chance to take an important three points after Dean Henderson once again made a penalty save.

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 12 Christantus UCHE, 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 24 Borna SOSA, 44 Walter BENITEZ, 55 Justin DEVENNY, 59 Rio CARDINES

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 2 Matt DOHERTY, 17 Pedro LIMA, 21 Rodrigo GOMES, 31 Sam JOHNSTONE, 74 Tom EDOZIE

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“I think the win today will help us but it’s the same now for us it’s a first small step. The first step to the right direction was the away win at Brighton and now the second small step forward and getting this confidence back and I’m sure the structure will be better and better and the results will be better and better.”

DEAN HENDERSON

“Huge, obviously with all the noise around us at the minute. It was nervy, they were down to 10 men but we managed to get over the line. It was a big moment [the penalty save] before half-time but that’s my job. That’s what I’m there to do and hopefully I gave the lads confidence to go and get the win. The big man [Evann Guessand] came on and he was the difference today. 

MATCH STATISTICS

TEB VERDICT

This was always going to be a tough what with the hosts really lacking in confidence which in turn really had an impact on the atmosphere on a sunny afternoon in South London.

The gloom was really lifted by an excellent goal against ten-man Wolves. Adam Wharton sent a great ball out wide to Tyrick Mitchell stretching the visiting defence, who in turn pinged in a low cross which was turned into the back of the next at the near post by Evann Guessand, scoring his first goal for the club and in the Premier League.

The opportunity to win the game was set up by captain Dean Henderson who saved from penalty spot once again late in the first half – his record when facing spot kicks is quite remarkable and without that save it could have been a quite toxic second half.

It was hugely important to get the win for Palace with the pressure mounting on Oliver Glasner. The performance was far from vintage but this was all about getting the win before heading into the Conference League second leg on Thursday.

Much was said about the contribution of Yeremy Pino who made the start against Wolves, and while there certainly is a player in there somewhere, he struggling to adjust to life with Palace. It has been so many times where players coming into the Premier League from other countries really do show their worth in their second season, and hopefully that is the case for the Spaniard.

Ultimately, it was the second half changes by Glasner that ended up forcing the game with Daichi Kamada forcing himself in the number ten role, while Evann Guessand once again contributing from the bench, this time with the all-important goal.

The results sees Palace just 2 points outside the top 10, while 10 points away from the bottom three with 11 league games left to play.

That’s a big tick for the first part of this week, let’s make sure it is another big tick on Thursday evening before heading to Old Trafford next weekend.

LEAGUE POSITION

UPCOMING FIXTURES