From the off Palace passed the ball majestically and had the visitors chasing shadows. Once again the final ball into the box was the missing element of the play, and as a result there were not too many chances to speak of. The best of them falling to Baggies striker Lee Hughes whose run and 20 yard shot came back off the far post.
In the second period, Palace again out passed Albion and this time did create some decent opportunities with Shipperley, Freedman and Johnson all going close before Shipperley lost control of the ball in the centre circle, the ball was then played forward into the inside right channel where Rob Hulse raced past the sleeping Hayden Mullins to smash home from 15 yards. Albion's lead lasted only 7 minutes when Johnson's cross from the right found Dougie Freedman, who slotted home. Palace looked the more likely to win with their slick passing game causing all sorts of problems for the visitors. A mid pitch melee for the ball resulted in referee Paul Danson being take out by a mixture of Michael Hughes and Shaun Derry. The ref was knocked out and play was held up for 5 minutes while he was stretchered off. During the 8 minutes of added time, Palace sub Kit Symons was harshly adjudged to have brought down an Albion player some 25 yards from goal (and even more harshley cautioned for the "tackle"). Jason Koumas (not I may add for the first time in his career) smashed the ball into the net from the resultant free kick to give Albion the lead. With time running out up popped Johnson to give Palace the point that they so richly deserved.
Palace's injury list continues to grow, with Tony Popovic, Dougie Freedman and Jamie Smith all being withdrawn having taken knocks. Gary Borrowdale continues to impress at left back and it was good to see Hughes and Derry back to something like their best. On the downside Neil Shipperley still looks way off the pace and, dare I say it, doesn't look like giving us any more than Adebola did.
Both referees who were used today were guilty of over using the yellow card. This was not a dirty game, and there was hardly a foul worthy of the name, but the refs still managed to produce 8 yellow cards between them.