Observed one City fan during the pre-match fortifications: “at least we know that if they score first, Taylor’ll get all eleven men behind the ball. Then we’ll equalise.”

While one salutes such prescience, correctly predicting Peter Taylor’s battle plans are less soothsaying than they are extrapolation. And it is an unhappy camp that our former manager presides over. Booed off at full-time after collecting an ill-deserved point with only two wins this season, one suspects the patience of the orange cretin who owns Crystal Palace must be close to expiry.

Pushing Taylor closer to the precipice were: Myhill; Ricketts, TurnerBrown, Delaney; Garcia, Livermore, Marney, Pedersen; Windass, Okocha – it meant no place for Hughes with Phil Brown opting to risk Jay Jay despite reports of his stomach injury, Duke, Doyle, Featherstone and McPhee making up the rest of the City bench.

For Crystal Palace, ex-City hero Leon Cort lined up at centre-half while ex-City fish-lipped fadge Stuart Green – now playing for a bigger club, remember – was a substitute.

City kicked off the game attacking the end nearest to the side area where the 850 away fans were huddled, those who’d successfully made it past the ugly row of grim-faced traffic warden-wannabe fascists who seek employment as stewards at Selhurst Park, blocking entry for those they’d suspected of enjoying an alcoholic drink – the horror! – stealing harmless items on some arbitrary list of rules assuredly not advertised on the match ticket, even harassing one fan who dared to take a photograph on the public road outside the ground. What a bunch of total shits.

Anyway, the football…and it a pleasure it was, as City roared into their uncertain-looking opponents, forcing an early rash of corners and nearly taking the lead when a thumping shot from Sam Ricketts forced an excellent flying save from Julian Speroni. However, one man not really contributing to our vibrant start was Jay Jay Okocha, obviously struggling and after thirteen minutes he was withdrawn in favour of Bryan Hughes.

This disrupted City a little, as being shorn out of our primary creative influence understandably had an effect. Palace grew into the game as we looked a little breathless after our fast opening, giving the energetic Jamie Scowcroft and Ben Watson shooting chances that both failed to test Myhill.

Watson was cautioned shortly after for a idiotic lunge on Richard Garcia as he scampered towards goal on the right, and halfway through the opening forty-five we almost took the lead when a fantastic shot by Dean Marney crashed into Speroni’s post and came back out – a wonderful fizzing effort by a player looking uncommonly keen to influence proceedings, and it would have been a deserved lead had we taken it.

However, Peter Taylor teams are at least organised, and although being bested in midfield they look fairly tough at the back, led splendidly by the iconic Leon Cort neither side was unable to create anything else as a quiescent Selhurst Park crowd saw the match gently slip towards to the interval.

Now, let us not get on too much of a downer about our hosts. Their stadium is inferior to ours, but then most at this level are. Their stewards are gimlet-eyed students of National Socialist. Their fans think “facking” is a word. They provide employment for Stuart Green. All of these are not good things, but at one stage, all clubs have been guilty of some or all of these things. However, I can think of no other club that charges £3 for a 2/3 pint of lager.

Sigh.

On with the match, and the home support is roused from its slumber by news of some English egg-chasers beating some convict egg-chasers – a good thing, I suppose, though whether it’s deserving of a chorus of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” from some braying South Londoners is questionable. Anyway, City continued to look the better team, Hughes firing over a very presentable opportunity after terrific work by Dean Windass. Taylor had replaced Jeff Hughes with David Martin at the break, but still torpor continued to afflict our hosts.

Deano was the next to test Spironi with a looping header that caused more alarm than it initially appeared likely to, while Marney wasted a good chance with a timid shot after spotting an opening.

Clinton Morrison came on for the anonymous Paul Dickov, while Stuart Green replaced Ben Watson, and was given a well-earned volley of abuse from the City fans.

A booming header from Leon Cort nearly gave Palace the lead on 63 minutes, but Myhill was fortunately equal to it. As for City, Deano was tiring after a willing display, and he was replaced by Stephen McPhee, who was a usefully lively presence up front.

Palace had a brace of near-misses when Myhill paddled a Soares shot from distance wide and Hudson headed over from the resultant corner, but this was very much an isolated episode and a deathly hush had settled on the ground that was nearly punctured when Bryan Hughes nearly beat Speroni with a curling shot that took a good effort to repel.

However, with ten minutes left, disaster struck. A cross from the left saw Scowcroft cleverly evade his marker and head low and hard past Myhill – a sickening blow with City looking the likelier to score, and it seemed to have gifted Palace a monumentally undeserved win.

Back came the Tigers, urged on by the patient and supportive away end – substitute Hughes was replaced by Featherstone, McPhee clumsily spurned a shooting chance…but with the game in the 90^th minute, a high ball saw Mark Hudson clamber all over Michael Turner, and referee Beeby awarded City a penalty. A foul for certain, although not of the type that frequently sees penalties awarded and the home players were decidedly unimpressed.

Once their squawks of protest had been quelled, Dean Marney stepped up…and calmly sent Speroni the wrong way to spark massive celebrations in the away end.

Indeed, City nearly won it as the game entered the 94^th minute with another penalty claim that looked a trifle ambitious, but Mr Beeby was not about to fall for it and the match was drawn.

A good point - a better performance. With some sharper play in the final third, we’d have won the game comfortably. Some of this is due to Palace, a team cripplingly short on confidence and with a manager on borrowed time, but most of it is because we just looked better than them. Two years ago, we were flicked aside 2-0 at this ground. A year ago, we scrapped our way to a valuable draw. This time around, we leave disappointed with a solitary point.

We are a work in progress, that much is apparent. With the necessity for points to survive that formed the backdrop to Phil Brown’s first season at City now removed, the greater freedom he has is allowing us to see what he has in mind. Pleasingly, it seems our manager favours an open form of play, easy on the eye, effective with the right personnel. 

We can switch with reasonable fluidity from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2. We have what looks to be the right blend of steel and creativity in a midfield that, for the first time we returned to this level, is capable of holding its own against most side. Phil Brown is doing a lot of things right.

And as we pause for breath with an international weekend approaching, we can look at a good start to the season – 15^th, with 12 points from ten games. Solid. 15^th would be progress after the horrors of 2006/7, but one fancies we could be a couple of places better than that in the final reckoning. (AD)