Late McCombe header rescues a point for City

By: Matt P | February 19th, 2008

Sometimes half-time can aid a team, sometimes it can hinder them. As it was, a Bristol team full of verve before the break were transformed into a side lacking effort and quality during much of the second half. The change allowed Palace back into a match in which they had barely threatened, and ultimately led to what appeared to be, for a long period of time, the winning goal. City though, to their credit, never gave up, and a late corner thumped home by the head of stand in skipper Jamie McCombe, saved a point.

Backed by often thunderous support from the fans who turned up decked in red and white, City started well with a first half display that created plenty of opportunities including chances for Carle, who had a good effort tipped round the post, and McIndoe, who blazed over. Palace, though, showed why they have such a good defensive record, with Fletcher particularly impressing as he, for long periods, marked Carle out of the game, leaving Adebola isolated up front. Still, Bristol were on top, looking decent and a promising second half awaited.

Whatever Neil Warnock said to his team during the interval, or whatever they had in their oranges, worked wonders. Palace, a team who had looked low on confidence after three defeats in their last four matches, came out much stronger and with the belief needed to create numerous opportunities with Kuqi at the heart of most of the action. It was no surprise when, after 15 minutes of mostly one way traffic, a Palace throw in from the right was headed on whilst Bristol struggled to clear their lines. The ball fell to the 17 year-old Lee Hills who struck past the helpless Basso into the top right corner of the Bristol City goal. There was a clear shout for hand-ball by Kuqi in the build-up but the goal stood.

The goal seemed to wake Bristol up and minutes later Sproule saw a good shot saved by the impressive Speroni. Then with the introductions of Byfield and Trundle, Bristol found a three-pronged attack that began to cause Palace problems. More and more City found decent chances, only to be denied by last ditch defending and outstanding goalkeeping. However, with only a few minutes left on the clock, Byfield was brought down by Lawrence in the penalty area and City had the chance to level the scores. Up stepped Bradley Orr for his hat-trick of goals in the last three games, only to hit it, and the subsequent follow-up, down the throat of Speroni allowing pretty easy saves. The chance had gone begging.

It appeared that City’s proud record of having no team do the double over them for nearly two seasons was to end. However the team showed no signs of surrender and kept pushing for what seemed an unlikely equaliser. Finally the efforts paid off and with four minutes and thirty-eight seconds over the ninety, McCombe rose powerfully to head home Johnson’s cross and score his first ever goal at Ashton Gate. Palace were incensed, claiming too much time had been added but a point apiece seemed a fair result.

The result keeps City in third, a point behind Stoke and Watford. After the match, Gary Johnson said:

“Palace stopped us playing our normal passing game and we had to go very direct in the closing stages. We work hard on set pieces and Lee has produced a perfect corner under pressure for big Jamie to head in. I thought our chance had gone when we missed the penalty. But thankfully my players had other ideas and you have to give them credit for keeping going to the final whistle.”

Bristol City Man of the Match: Bradley Orr
The Offside Man of the Match: Darren Byfield

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