For most of the second half we looked like going down to an undeserved defeat to Crystal Palace, but we didn’t give up and won the game with two late goals from Luciano Becchio.
As expected, Grayson made just the one enforced change to his starting line-up, with Hughes coming in for the suspended Connolly. So he persisted with the 4-5-1 formation which has served us well in our away games in recent weeks, but does leave us a little bit short of firepower at home, when the opposition is content to sit a little bit deeper.
We thought we’d made the perfect start inside five minutes, when Gradel slipped the ball through to Howson who curled the ball past Speroni into the net. But he was denied by a very late linesman’s flag, though it must have been a tight decision as to whether he was actually offside. We continued to dominate possession, with Johnson and Snodgrass having shots blocked, before Speroni made a good save from Howson.
And we really should have gone in front seven minutes before half time. Snodgrass beat a defender and played an excellent ball across the face of goal, but Becchio somehow failed to get the touch it needed when faced with an open goal six yards out, and Gradel could only shoot wide when the clearance fell right at his feet. We were left to curse this miss when Palace took the lead against the run of play just before the break.
Clyne outpaced Johnson on Palace’s right and his cross bypassed three defenders to find the unmarked Danns at the far post, who had the simple task of tapping it across the line to put Palace in front. And it could have got even worse for us when Ambrose sent an excellent dipping free kick over the wall from 25 yards out, but thankfully Scmeichel managed to get across to tip the ball over the bar.
Ten minutes into the second period Grayson decided he needed to go to 4-4-2 to give us a better chance of breaking Palace down, so he made a double substitution with Sam and McCormack coming on for Gradel and Johnson. It hadn’t really been happening for Gradel who was well marshalled by both Palace full-backs, while Johnson had been struggling to contribute much from his deep midfield role. Once again he went off to a chorus of boos for refusing to sign a new contract.
As we continued to press Becchio found himself unmarked when he met Snodgrass’ long ball into the area, but couldn’t get any power on the header and Speroni had no trouble making the save. The Argentinian keeper’s form has been hailed as one of reasons Palace have been on a good run of late, and he made further good saves from Kilkenny and Sam. As time started to run out, Grayson decided to throw caution to the wind and send Paynter on as a third striker in place of Hughes.
And finally Palace cracked under the extra pressure, as we forced an equaliser with only nine minutes left on the clock. Kilkenny’s corner was headed on by McCartney and Paynter, before McCormack and Becchio converged on the ball together to force it over the line. Becchio was credited with the goal, but it could easily have gone the other way.
Now the force was with us, and only two minutes later we were in front. A flick-on from Snodgrass set McCormack racing through on goal, and though he was pulled down the ball ran kindly for Becchio, who took it into the box and smashed it past Speroni into the net. Palace might feel hard done by after leading for so long, but in truth this was what we deserved for all the possession we enjoyed throughout the game.
We still had some defending to do, as Palace finally came out of their shell in search of the equaliser, but we held on through four minutes of injury time to secure the win that takes us back into the play-off positions. This was a suitable reward for all then hard work that went into ‘project Buckingham’, and if we can play this well in the next two games we should secure some vital points against a couple of promotion rivals.