Munoz Scores First Palace Goal To Secure Deserved Point

A battling performance could have ended with nothing but this Palace side of playing for Oliver Glasner and there it is clear to see the togetherness within the group that will prove important this season.

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 2 Joel WARD, 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 26 Chris RICHARDS, 28 Cheick DOUCOURE, 30 Matt TURNER, 58 Caleb KPORHA

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 1 Martin DUBRAVKA, 2 Kieran TRIPPER, 18 William OSULA, 23 Jacob MURPHY, 24 Miguel ALMIRON, 25 Lloyd KELLY

TEB VERDICT

The statistics after the final whistle did not lie and it would have been a real travesty had the Eagles ended with nothing.

It looked very much like that would end up being the case until Daniel Munoz scored his first goal for the club, making up for a horrible miss late in the first half.

The point was the least Palace deserved as they had the chances, just could not convert them and as the game went on, the fact that there had only been three home goals so far this season was looming large. The strike from Munoz saw Selhurst Park jump and that fact that Oliver Glasner joined in the celebrations said an awful lot, just a joy to see.

This is a very good point, particularly if the Eagles can back that up with a win on Tuesday evening away at Ipswich. The point however. Sees Palace lift themselves out of the bottom three heading into the midweek fixture.

Munoz apart, Maxence Lacroix continues to grow with another very good performance along with Jefferson Lerma in the middle of the park.

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.

“On the cusp of December, with an almost fully fit squad, today signalled the beginning of a busy period which will define our season.

Whilst at the ground watching the game unfurl, it ultimately felt like a point gained scoring our equaliser in the final minute of added time. However, on reflection travelling home, it felt like an opportunity to gain three points had been lost. Newcastle were poor. They didn’t have one effort on or off target in the 100 minutes played and a 0.2 XG.

With a team containing so much potential attacking threat they are seriously underachieving. This only added to an overall impression and frustration that we should have gained an important win to gradually move us away from the relegation places.

We certainly had decent spells of possession creating chances that should have been taken. The most striking of those was the Munoz open goal miss in the first half. It proved to be a pivotal moment in the game. Had he converted the chance I’m sure we would have gone on to win the game.

Munoz certainly redeemed himself with the late equaliser from a Guehi cross but not being clinical in key moments will probably mean an ongoing battle at the wrong end of the table.

So in total a solid performance but not enough to earn all three points. A crucial mid-week fixture at Ipswich is our next challenge in what has almost become even at this stage of the season a must not lose game.

Although no outstanding individual performances today, a mention in dispatches today for Hughes, Munoz, Lacroix and Glasner’s sprint down the touchline to celebrate that late equaliser!”

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“The equaliser was so deserved. We are a little bit disappointed because we would have deserved the win today. Keeping Newcastle on one shot – it was an unbelievable performance.

We have to blame ourselves that we didn’t take those chances. With Newcastle’s pace in attack, you always have to take care that you don’t get hit on transition situations. Everyone deserved the equaliser.

We feel we deserve a bit more this season. It’s not that we miss chances because we are arrogant, it’s about how we deal with it. What gives me a lot of confidence is the character of the players here at Palace.

It’s frustrating but, on the other side, we know we will come through it together. The way we are playing is improving game-by-game and then the results will come.”

EDDIE HOWE

“It was a strange game. We didn’t have any goalmouth action but I felt we were good in the game. I felt we nullified them pretty well. In the main, I think we controlled it pretty well. It is gutting to concede the goal at the end. I felt like we had weathered the storm and we would see the game out. We defended crosses well but one moment cost us today. In our last two games, we have let a lot of points slip.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES