PALACE STOP THE BLEEDING AS THEY SLAUGHTER THE SAINTS

CRYSTAL PALACE 3 SOUTHAMPTON 0

BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT SELHURST PARK

 Crystal Palace got their season back on track as they arrested their recent rotten form by putting Southampton to the sword with a brilliant team performance, which no one saw coming.  There had been a lot of speculation before the game that this could be Alan Pardew’s last game as manager here if he failed to get a result today. In his programme notes he said to the Palace fans: “After a run of defeats there is pressure on us going into this game, so I urge you to get behind the Palace players for a match that offers us a chance to steer this season back in the right direction.”

The game started like a slow burner and both teams did not have a shot on goal until the midway point of the first half when Ryan Bertrand saw his shot deflected for a corner. Minutes later Palace played some neat one touch football and the ball was eventually worked to Wifried Zaha whose cross found Christian Benteke in the area but his header was wide. 

Both teams were huffing and puffing until the 34^th minute when Jose Fonte played a simple pass back to Fraser Forster who somehow made a harsh of his clearance and was closed down by Benteke who tapped the ball into the net. Forster could not have made chosen a worse moment to cock up as the new England manager Gareth Southgate was in attendance.

Just like London buses, which come in twos, Palace doubled their lead moments later.  Two weeks ago they were on the receiving end of a soft corner, which they failed to defend.  This time a Palace corner from the left was flicked on by Joe Ledley to James Tomkins who was unmarked as the Southampton defenders went to sleep and he stabbed the ball home. Although Palace were sitting pretty at this stage, those fans who travelled to Swansea last week would know it is not over yet.

In stoppage time of the first half Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg hit a left foot shot, which just fizzed past Wayne Hennesey’s goal.  Palace led 2-0 at the break.  Southampton made some changes, which included Shane Long.  He almost made an impact as he saw his header saved at the hear post by Hennessey. 

In the dying moments of the game Palace were awarded a corner, which was taken by Jason Puncheon.  Southampton attempted to clear their line but James McArthur kept the ball alive and it came back to Puncheon who guided it back to Benteke who was alive to the situation and had the simple job of tapping the ball home to end any doubt about the result. That was Benteke’s 7^th goal for Palace but Alan Pardew will expect more from his marquee signing.

At the final whistle Pardew turned to the South London faithful and thanked them for their loyal support in the light of their struggles this season. For once there was no hard luck story for Palace today as they kept it simple. The defence played as a unit and cut out the mistakes, which had been symptomatic with them in recent weeks.  Scott Dann and Damien Delaney kept Charlie Austin very quiet to the extent that he did not manage a single shot on target all game. Zaha was excellent on the ball and Puncheon did not put a foot wrong as he controlled the play in the middle. The loss of Yohan Cabaye and Connor Wickham was not felt here.  This was also Palace’s first clean sheet in the league this season.

Pardew said: “ We had to be sound in defence today. We had to tick that box.  We were calm today. We got gifted our first goal but there were some good individual performances today.  I thought the fans really helped us today. After six defeats I don’t think you can get that in many stadiums. You still need goals at the right time and they came at the right time today. “