Palace fell behind in the first minute when Matt Clarke's pass to Shaun Derry was intercepted by Mark van Bommell who calmly chipped over the stranded goalkeeper. After this early setback, Clarke then proved himself with a series of fine saves. Steve Kember had said that he wanted Palace to play attacking, passing football and they did not let him down. Butterfield's crosses found Shipperley's head on two occasions. The first cleared the crossbar and the second one produced a fine save from the visitors goalkeeper. Tony Popovic had a goal disallowed just before the break for a push. The second half saw Palace produce more of the same. Johnson, Freedman and Shipperley playing as a free moving threesome worked well as did the impressive Michael Hughes. A series of substitutions did not disturb the Palace rhythm, and indeed when Gary Borrowdale came on at left wingback, allowing Wayne Routledge to switch to the right, Palace had even more pressure. A last minute effort almost produced an equaliser for Palace, but Gareth Williams just failed to connect with a pass across the six yard box.
At the end of the match, Steve Kember walked back toward the tunnel with the applause of the 10,500 crowd ringing in his ears. Whether this remains the case over the coming months remains to be seen, but if we see every week what we saw tonight then the promised land of the premiership is not too far away.