Crystal Palace 0 - 0 Leicester City

Palace and Leicester fought out a goalless draw in a lacklustre encounter at Selhurst Park this evening. There was little for either set of supporters to cheer in a match devoid of entertainment. Palace had the opportunities to have the match wrapped up by half time with Andy Johnson and Tony Popovic both missing decent chances. Matt Clarke had to be on his toes at the other end to keep the scores level at half time. Palace's first effort on target came in the 71st minute, a fact which illustrated the way the match was going. Gerry Taggart was booked for a late tackle on Dougie Freedman and barely 5 minutes later was given the red card for an elbowing incident on the same player.This was the signal for Palace to throw everything at Ian Walker's goal, but a mixture of desperate defending and poor finishing ensured that the score remained goalless. This was certainly our worst performance of the season so far, with nobody seemingly able to pass the ball more than 10 yards to a player in the same colour shirt. Manager Trevor Francis bemoaned the fact that we kept throwing high balls towards Freedman and Johnson, which were easy meat for two giants like Elliott and Taggart. Palace seemed devoid of ideas, with Mullins and Derry, two players with a lovely touch and good vision, hampered by having Thomson alongside them, and Danny Butterfield struggling to make an impact. Only Clarke and Fleming made any worthwhile contribution, while Danny Granville was appalling.
Things had better improve 100 per cent before Saturday's jaunt to bottom club Burnley or they will pick up their first points of the season.