CRYSTAL PALACE 0 EVERTON 1

BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT SELHURST PARK

The honeymoon period looks to have ended for Sam Allardyce already as he continues to search for his first win in the League as Crystal Palace manager.  Although he has never been relegated as a manager, contrary to what the pundits said when he was appointed, this could be his toughest assignment yet as this Palace side look like one of the favourites to go down.

Everton on the back of their impressive win in their last outing against Manchester City came here with confidence and got the vital win required to continue to move them up the table.

Crystal Palace dropped into the bottom three with Swansea’s win at Liverpool earlier in the day. So they knew that nothing but a win would lift them out of the relegation Zone.

Palace were quite lively at the beginning as they immediately went on the front foot and fed the ball frequently to debutant Jeffrey Schlupp, who was excluded from Ghana’s African Cup of Nations squad. Loic Remy was also included from the start.

Palace nearly took the lead in the 10^th minute when James McArthur swung the ball from the left to the back post but Christian Benteke’s fine header hit the woodwork and bounced back into play. On the quarter of the hour mark Kevin Mirallas received the ball from a corner, turned neatly in the area and hit a fine shot, which was saved by Wayne Hennessey. 

In the 34^th minute Romelu Lukaku’s shot hit the post and Ross Barkley put the rebound into the net but he was ruled offside. Minutes later Mirallas had a shot saved by Hennessey. Everton gradually came into the game. But neither side could find the break through in the first half as it ended goalless.

After the break, Barkley danced around two Palace defenders and hit a shot, which was just wide of Hennessey’s goal.  With the game still deadlocked Ronald Koeman sent on Ademola Lookman in place of Kevin Mirallas and he immediately had a shot on target, which was saved.

Palace kept probing looking for the goal, which could lift them out of the drop zone and almost got it in the 80^th minute when a header by Scott Dann from a free kick but it was tipped round the post by Joel Robles. That was Palace’s first shot on target in the game.

A minute later the ball broke to Seamus Coleman down the right an he made his way into the box before smashing a shot past Hennessey to give Everton the lead with just a few minutes to go.  Palace felt the game should have been stopped as Schlupp had crawled off the pitch with cramp but crawled back onto the field down the Everton end.  That last in concentration cost Palace a goal as Everton played to the whistle and were within their right to do so.

What was also telling was that the goal came via the space that Schlupp had left when he want up to join the attack. There were five added minutes but seriously even if they had added five hours this Palace side just did not look like scoring today other than the early chance by Benteke.

Koeman said: ”It is not bad to score a late goal.  It does not give the other side a lot of time to equalise.  We know about Seamus from the first second to the last second and it is difficult to defend that.  The referee did the right thing to carry on. The whole team did well. If you beat Man City every one expects the same performance. I am really proud and pleased with the win today. The attitude was perfect with a win and clean sheet.” 

Allardyce said:” We were done by ourselves. We are very disappointed we did not get that 0-0 and clean sheet, which we need to build on. We have to get the belief and confidence. Everton beat Man city 4-0 and were lucky to beat us today. I don’t think we were to blame for our defeat today. The turning point was the header on the free kick, which the keeper saved. I thought it was in. Going forward we will improve. Dropping into the bottom three is irrelevant. You have to win points. We have to live with that pressure and pick points up as quickly as we can. “