Eagles Effort Pays Off By Holding Forest To Point

The build up to this game was marred by more injuries being announced leaving just a handful of senior players to face Forest, but everything was left out on the Selhurst Park as Palace battled hard for a deserved point.

MATCH INFORMATION

• 5.30pm – 7^th October 2023
• Crystal Palace 0-0 Nottingham Forest
• Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 4 Rob HOLDING, 5 James TOMKINS, 23 Malcolm EBIOWEI, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 52 David OZOH, 53 Ademola OLA-ADEBOMI, 60 Jadan RAYMOND

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 4 Joe WORRALL, 7 Neco WILLIAMS, 12 Andrey SANTOS, 23 Odysseas VLACHODIMOS

TEB VERDICT

This was an impressive performance in the circumstances with the players leaving it all out on the pitch at the final whistle. A growing injury list was only added to with Jeffrey Schlupp and Jairo Riedewald leaving the game early just to compound matters.

With the plan seemingly allowing the two centre backs to be the playmakers, it almost paid off as the pairing led by example in the absence of anyone in the line up able to hold up the ball and create, other than Jordan Ayew. If only Mateta has his shooting boots on, the result may have been even better.

Losing Schlupp was a blow but that allowed the introduction of Jesurun Rak-Sakyi who really put in a performance to get the crowd off their feet. Yes, he is a raw talent but he was given an opportunity and he took it. Let’s hope that one good that comes from this injury crisis is the arrival of Jesurun.

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.

“A game that won’t live long in the memory because of its overall poor quality but only Palace supporters would fully understand the impact of missing a number of key players on our performance levels.

It was a day to dig in, show full commitment and gain what proved to be a hard earned and valuable point. Achieving three consecutive clean sheets is no mean feat in the Premier League and highlights the undoubted strength of the team at the very heart of our defence. Johnstone, Guehi and Andersen make up a formidable first class defensive unit. Many successful teams are built around such top defenders and keepers. We are fortunate to have them at the club and will ensure that a mid-table finish is highly probable even if we do lack similar quality up top.

Both teams struggled to find any consistent rhythm going forward and the shared 50% possession probably confirmed that a draw was a fair outcome. Johnstone was certainly the busier of the two keepers but many Forest attacks were kept at arm’s length. Most of our best play originated down our left flank with Mitchell often ensuring an overload which we tried to exploit.

In a week of much discussion about VAR and officials per se, all credit to the officiating. It’s often said that the best referees are rarely noticed during the game and with only one yellow card, Craig Pawson’s presence was very low key. One wonders whether Howard Webb had instructed his team of referees and VAR officials to keep their heads down this weekend!

In a performance which reflected such hard graft by the whole team it would be churlish to pick out one player as man of the match. I could start with the aforementioned three at the centre of our defence but maybe Ayew and Rak-Sakyi also deserve a mention. I’m sure others could be added by our supporters.

Let’s hope the international break gives invaluable time for some of our injured players to recover before we play Newcastle and Spurs. It’s currently a squad which is thin on offensive options and will remain so until Eze, Olise and Franca are judged fully match fit to be available for selection.”

POST GAME QUOTES

ROY HODGSON

“You have to take games as they are and you can’t predict how the game is going to be looking before it takes place. Both teams had spells where they were looking dangerous. Both teams were hard-working and organised and determined not to give anything away because we know how important clean sheets are. In our case we are a bit wounded anyway and to lose Jeffrey Schlupp so early on, we had to come over the mental barrier that was going to help in putting Rak-Sakyi on.

In the end, both teams get to a point where you want to win it and you’re trying to win it but the fear that you are going to come away with a 1-0 loss and if either team had won by that margin, you would have come away with regrets. It’s a point each and not what either team wanted but it’s better than no points.” 

STEVE COOPER

“I guess that is the sign of the progress we are making that we come to a side like Palace and we are disappointed just getting a point. We had the real chances of the game, well created chances as well. We could have nicked it at the end with a lot of corners and territory.

It is a clean sheet away from home and we would have done anything for results and performances like that last season. There are some good signs in the team and there have been for a few weeks now.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES

21/10/23 Newcastle United (a) – Premier League 3pm

27/10/23 Tottenham Hotspur (h) – Premier League 8pm

04/11/23 Burnley (a) – Premier League 3pm