Crystal Palace v Rovers - Match Report

We were the better team today. We were solid at the back, controlled midfield for large periods, and attacked well down the flanks. We weren't brilliant, our current squad is long way from being brilliant, but we were better than Palace which is encouraging. Our finishing let us down though. Dickov, Neill, Short and Ferguson all had good chances to score and none of them did. If one of them had we'd have got the win we deserved as Palace hardly offered a threat. Matteo, despite what Ewood Dream says, was solid at left back and snuffed out any threat from Palace's winger. Short and Todd coped admirably with Johnson. Neill actually looked like a player again. And my man of the match was Flitcroft, who I thought screened the defence superbly throughout. He didn't offer much going forward but that wasn't his job today, his job was to stop Palace creating and he performed it excellently. Thompson, like many a player before him this season, needs severe punishment for his petulance that could have cost us late in the game. That aside though it was a decent performance and a hard-fought point. We're certainly more solid now and we don't look like a soft touch anymore. However we're still lacking a cutting edge, something that I hope Hughes can sort during the transfer window. Match report written by Scotty

Palace:Kiraly, Boyce, Hall, Popovic, Granville, Routledge (Torghelle 82), Riihilahti (Andrews 53), Watson, Hughes, Kolkka (Lakis 73), Johnson. Subs Not Used: Speroni, Leigertwood. Yellow card: Hughes, Torghelle, Andrews. Rovers: Friedel, Neill, Short, Todd, Matteo, Reid (Thompson 71), Flitcroft, Ferguson, Emerton, Dickov, Bothroyd (Stead 80). Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Johansson, Gallagher. Red card: Thompson (88). Yellow card: Dickov, Todd, Thompson. Att: 22,010 Ref: A Wiley

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