Francis frustrated as Palace fumble
Crystal Palace 1 Nottingham Forest 1
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Your support makes all the difference.Trevor Francis, who once won the European Cup for Nottingham Forest, found them unwilling to return a favour when he needed one last night. On their second visit of the week through the south London maze to Selhurst Park, his former club scored in the third minute and went on to display all the determination that their manager Paul Hart had demanded after the feeble 1-0 defeat by Wimbledon last Sunday.
Clinton Morrison equalised before half-time but a disjointed Palace performance meant only one victory in five games since Francis took over from Steve Bruce and a failure to leap-frog their neighbours Millwall into the First Division's top six. Unsurprisingly in the light of recent events, they look an unsettled team representing an unsettled club, who have now garnered four points from the last available 24.
Conceding a goal so early was the last thing Palace wanted as they adapted to another new formation; having changed to a 4-4-2 for the 1-0 loss at Watford last weekend, Francis went for a bolder 4-3-3 with the regular pairing of Dougie Freedman and Clinton Morrison staying wide on either side of Trevor Benjamin, who was playing his first game on loan from Leicester.
In the first attack of the game, Nicky Summerbee lifted a good cross to the far post where Stern John headed in despite the attentions of Christian Edwards, a Forest club-mate currently on loan to the London club.
Palace took some time to compose themselves but just about deserved their equaliser 10 minutes from half-time. Freedman played a well-weighted ball for Jamie Smith to cross, Benjamin nodded down and Morrison dived in to head past Darren Ward.
After making numerous errors, Edwards, perhaps over-keen to impress both managers, was replaced at half-time by the American Gregg Berhalter. Within four minutes, Freedman turned superbly inside one man and beat another, but Ward parried his shot and Morrison's follow-up was also blocked.
The home side's three forwards interchanged regularly, without really creating sufficient chances and by midway through the second half Francis had indicated his dissatisfaction by using all three substitutes, Jovan Kirovski taking over from the limping Freedman. His team might even have been caught out in the last 10 minutes with Scimeca forcing Alex Kolinko to save painfully, and in added time, John eluding the goalkeeper's risky challenge without managing to keep the ball in play.
Crystal Palace (4-3-3): Kolinko; Smith, Symons, Edwards (Berhalter, h-t), Harrison (Gray, 69); Riihilahti, Thomson, Hopkin; Freedman, Benjamin, Morrison. Substitutes not used: Black, Carasso (gk), Kirovski.
Nottingham Forest (4-5-1): Ward; Louis-Jean, Hjelde, Scimeca, Brennan; Summerbee, Williams, Bopp, Prutton, Jenas (Vaughan, h-t); John. Substitutes not used: Lester, Johnson, Roche (gk), Gray.
Referee: R Harris (Oxford).
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