Dougie Freedman netted his seventh goal of the season to rescue a point for out of sorts Palace at Selhurst Park this afternoon. The visitors even had goalkeeper Mike Pollitt sent off for an innoculous hand ball with 5 minutes to go. Palace had struggled to impose any kind of threat on the visitors in the first period, and it was no surprise when Chris Swailes evaded the attention of Darren Powell to head home a left wing corner, just after the half hour. Rotherham looked a yard quicker to the ball in the first half and Darren Byfield was a threat with his pace down the middle. Indeed, Byfield shopuld have doubled the visitors lead after half time when he burst through the inside right channel but screwed his shot wide of Cedric Berthelin's right hand post. this was to prove costly for Ronnie Moore's men as a minute later Freedman pulled Palace level with a close range finish from Tommy Black's cross from the left flank. Danny Butterfield worked his socks off in a central midfield position and Andy Johnson closed down everything in sight for 90 minutes. Shaun Derry produced a workmanlike performance with his two touch control and pass game, a feature of his play which is more often than not overlooked by the supporters, and he can consider himself unlucky to have been substituted by Aki Riihilahti. Once again Freedman and Shipperley looked out of sorts and they appear to be suffering a crisis of confidence in front of goal. All too often we try and walk the ball into the net, when sometimes a bit of old fashioned welly is required. Tommy Black had an absolute stinker, and Wayne Routledge for all his close control seldom produces an effective final pass. The delivery to the front men from Black and Routledge was woeful. Yet again Kember prefers to play Fleming, out of position at left back, rather than play Borrowdale, a natural left footer. With Michael Hughes suspended, Ben Watson would have been the natural choice to fit into centre midfield, but Kember played Butterfield in there, again out of position. The future looks good for the Club with the amount of youngsters that are either in or just around the fringes of the first team, but if the manager does not pick them, instead relying on playing people out of position, the kids will quickly become disillusioned. Check out the Ipswich team that comes to Palace on Tuesday. Youngsters like Ian Westlake, Matt Richards, Tommy Miller and Gerard Nash have all been given their chance by Joe Royle and expect at least two of them to start with the others being on the bench. A testament that youth can do the jobs of men when you consider that they have won 7 of their last 8 league games, without the likes of Matt Holland, Darren Ambrose, Marcus Bent and Thomas Gardsoe who for varying reasons have all been allowed to leave over the last few months.
Kember will have to start blooding these younger players on a more regular basis. Who can honestly tell me that Watson does not deserve a place in a team lying, as we speak, in 15th place in the division? No, I thought not.
