02/12 Palace 2nd Half

By: Tony Butcher
Date: 03/12/2000

No changes were made by either side at half time. Town started well - Nielsen received a pass on the Town right, just inside the Palace half. He advanced 5 yards then played a brilliantly weighted ball between the centre backs for Donovan to run onto.

Grimsby Town 2 Crystal Palace 2
02 Dec 2000, Nationwide League Division 1

As the 'keeper came out, Donovan knocked the ball past him and tried to place the ball into the goal. Fan Zhiyi raced across and blocked the shot for a corner. We had to wait a long time for anymore excitement down at that end. Town played very poorly in the second half. It was partly a change in Palace tactics - they decided to kick anything that moved very hard, and partly Town players visibly losing their puff, as it were. Nielsen in particular received some stick, mostly from behind. It looked like the Palace players were taking it in turns to whack him. It was also noticeable that Palace fouled a long way from their own goalmouth, in non-threatening positions. An old tactic that. Smacks of pre-ordained tactics. For 30 minutes the only Town efforts to even consider mentioning were a Donovan long shot, an Allen long shot, both comfortably saved by the 'keeper low down, and a Fostervold cross which the 'keeper punched from under the crossbar as Nielsen jumped close by.

Grimsby Town Coyne McDermott Fostervold Handyside Willems Coldicott Burnett Campbell Donovan Nielsen Allen   Subs D Smith Jeffrey Croudson Bloomer Murray

Ruddock (pictured) was getting to be more and more of a pain in the backside with his constant mouthing at the referee, telling him what to do. Every decision brought forth a Ruddock contribution, together with a couple more players in an unheavenly choir. He was trying to use the sheer weight of his personality to sway the referee. And as we know that's a heavy load.

The game was no longer exciting and interesting, the Pontoon fell into sullen silence, almost boredom. Palace continued to fill their own penalty area with bodies and whack the ball as high and as far as they could. A simplistic approach but, as we have observed so many times, one that Town fail to overcome. Palace were more of an offensive threat (whereas Ruddock was merely offensively threatening) in the second half and could, no should, have scored 3 or 4. After about 10-15 minutes Fostervold was nutmegged down in the corner between Pontoon and Main Stand. His opponent skipped gaily past him and clipped a cross to the far post. Black steamed in and headed down firmly against the post. The ball bounced behind Coyne and was wellied away by either McDermott or Handyside. Fostervold was still turning when the ball hit the post, by the way. He is NOT a full back, as he has absolutely no speed, especially when he has to turn.

Town started to get schloppy in defence, with Willems again trying to pass out of defence when a hoof was more appropriate. When on the right corner of the Town penalty area he flipped a 5 yard pass out to …no-one. A Palace player ran forward and moved the ball back down their left. The ball was crossed to the near post, about 5 yards out. Morrison ran in (in almost a replica of his first half miss) and chested the ball wide of Coyne's right hand post, the ball coming of Handyside thigh last for a …..goal kick. It was another superb miss gleefully observed by the Pontoon.

Up until the 75th minute nothing much happened in terms of goalmouth action. Jeffrey replaced the clearly unfit Allen after about 70sih minutes. Jeffrey failed to control the ball or pass to a Town player for the next 10 minutes, thus bringing forth that rumbling, grumbling sound of a Grimbarian unhappy. Nielsen got kicked twice more and received treatment on the pitch. He continued but was hobbling on one foot, eventually hopping over to the touchline for more treatment, and finally being helped off the pitch. He was replaced by D Smith with less than 15 minutes left. Town reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with Coldicott out on the wide right, D Smith on the left and Donovan and Jeffrey as our aggressive animal magic up front. Now was hope high in the Town support? Of course not. And especially when Palace scored another shocking goal with less than 10 minutes left.

Palace attacked down the Town right, under the Findus/Stones/Smiths. The ball ricocheted around a bit and eventually ballooned gently to Handyside, about 25 yards out to the right of centre. Our hobbling hero attempted to control the ball with his chest (I think), but he appeared to slip slightly and head the ball to Morrison, who was stood 3 or 4 yard in front of him. Handyside fell, leaving Morrison with a totally clear run at Coyne. Coyne came off his line and MORRISON lobbed the ball over him from the edge of the area. Oh dear, one of those rarities, a Handyside mistake. Young Peter was a little slacklustre. Cue the sound of slapping seats as a couple of hundred of the "faithful" went home. Some of the Pontoon slayed them with some untamed wit "Just wait 'til you see the score on Ceefax. You'll be sorry you went home". Oh how ironic and witty we were. Like Town would come back from that, with Jeffrey and Donovan up front.

And then the game went a little crazy. Forssell hit the bar with a curling shot from the right edge of the penalty area on another fast Palace break. D Smith started to run at the Palace defence (now that is crazy), and Town started to get a little more vigorous.

With about 5 minutes left Palace started to break again, after a Town pass had bounced off Ruddock the rubber man (shouldn't that be Norris?). Mullins collected the ball about 30 yards from his own goal, on their right. He looked up and saw that Palace had a couple of players completely unmarked on the Town left. He then clipped a beautiful defence splitting ball straight to D Smith on the half way line . Ah, the spirit of Widdrington lives on (fortunately passing on to the opposition, just like he used to, eh?). D Smith ran straight at their defence, in an inside left position and, about 10 yards outside the area, slipped a through ball to the unmarked Jeffrey, in a sort of left wingers position. The ball rolled slowly to Jeffrey, and kept rolling slowly, The 'keeper came out and Jeffrey still allowed the ball to roll. Then, just as the 'keeper went down to smother, JEFFREY calmly lifted the ball over the 'keeper and it rolled into the back of the net. Half the Town supporters went wild with a half laugh in their cheer, and half stayed in their seats, presumably incredulous at the sight of Jeffrey scoring. Like a goalmachine. So the pre-match shooting practice was not a waste of time, but a harbinger of doom for Palace.

Ah well, a consolation goal, with just 5 minutes left. We weren't going to score again, were we. But no sir, there's more. At about this time (it may have been before the goal), Coldicott and Ruddock had a clash of titans with a full frontal sliding tackle, just outside the Palace penalty area. Both remained prostrate for a few seconds, clutching various parts of their anatomy. And yes, the ground shook in the Pontoon when they collided. After a few seconds Ruddock got up and started to shove Coldicott around, so Coldicott responded physically and verbally. Perhaps he said "Ruddock, you're a big man, but you're out of shape." There was a bit more shoving and pointing, all from Ruddock, who was joined by some more junior partners in crime. It certainly stirred the game up, to our advantage.

Just after Town scored Palace got a free kick down in front of the Findus/Stones/ Smiths after Black "fell" under a challenge by McDermott. It shouldn't have been a free kick as McDermott won the ball cleanly. Black swung the fee kick in with his left foot and the ball curled across the face of the goal, missing Forssell in the centre as Coyne jumped in front of him waving his arms.

With a couple of minutes left a long ball from defence, right down the middle bounced on the edge of the Palace area, towards the right hand corner. Donovan fell brilliantly under a challenge from a Palace defender and the referee awarded Town a free kick about 20 yards out. As he'd given a free kick, he should have booked the Palace player, but he didn't. Willems waved everyone away and lined up a shot. He looked confident and we now have a successor to Black (K) as free kick expert. He fair wellied the ball through a gap in the wall, low to the 'keepers left. The goalie saved very well, but parried the ball out. DONOVAN scampered in and side footed the ball through a thicket of Palace players. And the crowd went bonkers, with many gestures towards the seats emptied only 5 minutes earlier.

The previously chirpy, cheeky (half) cock-er-nees down at the Osmond End were silent now, a fact cheerfully pointed out by 3 sides of the ground. There was still more to report. A minute after the equaliser Burnett tried a shot from 25 yards, out to the left, which went about a foot over the bar. In injury time the Palace left winger, Black, wriggled through the Town defence of our right, about 12yards out, 8 yards wide of the right hand post. He went through one challenge with a heavy sliding studs up tackle, then Campbell slid across as Black again slid with his studs up. Campbell won the tackle, but got a rake up the shins for his troubles. As the ball was cleared they had a wrestling match. Four Palace players raced across the pitch and started to threaten Campbell, including Ruddock for the umpteenth time. It was obvious they were trying to intimidate the referee into sending Campbell off. As Black had perpetrated the foul, that was a bit rich. There was a bit of slapping and shoving and eventually Campbell and Black were booked.

After another minute or two the game ended. As the players went off, four Palace players advanced on the referee waving fingers, shaking fists and generally being aggressive. Ruddock was eventually restrained by some of his cohorts, almost literally being dragged off the pitch by his team mates. I wonder if he made an inappropriate comment to the referee? He should have been thanking the referee for not sending him off.

Well, there we have it. A draw, with most of the action being confined to the last 10 minutes. Town dominated the first half and were terrible in the second. Palace were what they always are - a vigorous team who rely on confidence. I haven't seen a team kick the ball out of play so much when trying to pass to each other since Swindon last year. They were dangerous on the break because of the pace and power of their forwards, they packed the defence and were a little fortunate that Town had no fit strikers. And of course they were given the second goal.

There are a number of positives to take from this game - Burnett's rehabilitation, Donovan's positive approach in a new role, Willem's footballing ability. However, the defence definitely requires some stability and, above all, playing people in the correct positions. The lack of width playing 4-3-3 (or 4-3-1-2) is becoming a bit of a handicap as more teams cotton on to this tactic. We are terribly exposed on the counter attack down both wings.

In a sense we got away with it today, but a fightback is a fightback. At least they aren't giving up. One day we'll be able to defend crosses. I do worry about Fostervld playing left back - put it this way, would you play Raven as a full back?

Nick0's man of the match - Mr Wayne Burnett. Playmaker par excellence, or should that be pass excellence.

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