Crystal Palace 1-1 West Bromwich Albion

Posted Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by theguardian.com

Crystal Palace face final cliffhanger after failure to beat West Brom

Crystal Palace's Johannes Ertl, left, is wrong-footed by West Bromwich Albion's Graham Dorrans at Selhurst Park.

Crystal Palace have shown a propensity for drama this season, both on and off the field, so it is perhaps fitting that their Championship survival will now be determined on the final day, against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Sunday, in a winner-takes-all showdown.

Palace have the draw and they will travel to south Yorkshire with the club's future on the line, having failed to ease their plight on a night of intense emotion, in which their midfielder Neil Danns was sent off in the 83rd minute for a retaliatory butt at Graham Dorrans to incur a costly suspension.

Victory against Roberto Di Matteo's West Bromwich Albion would have saved Palace and relegated Wednesday yet they came up short. Although Darren Ambrose nearly brought the house down with virtually the last kick of the game, a shot that was hacked to safety by the Albion full-back Marek Cech, Palace would have been trailing were it not for the excellence of the goalkeeper Julian Speroni. A home win would not have been deserved.

Relegation would spell disaster for Palace, who have been in administration since the end of January and face a fire sale of players. There is no guarantee that their prospective buyers and saviours, the CPFC 2010 group, would want to buy a club in League One. All those connected to the south London club must continue to live on their nerves.

"We were slightly unlucky at the end, with the Ambrose chance," said the manager, Paul Hart, "but our keeper was excellent and we defended like Trojans. Our away form is excellent and Sunday's is a game that we look forward to. If we put in a performance of that calibre, we will be OK. We are in a better position than Sheffield Wednesday and we have to make it count."

Palace knew that anything other than victory would send their season down to the wire yet their supporters might also have wondered how it had come to this. Was the decision to summon the administrator too hasty, particularly as the debt involved was £4.5m? Without the related 10-point deduction, the club would be in mid-table.

On the other hand, it was easy to appreciate the nervousness that had driven the move. Palace had failed to pay the players' wages three times. HMRC was threatening to wind up the club. The wage bill was plainly too big.

Selhurst Park was cloaked in tension prior to the kick-off but Palace enjoyed the dream start. When you have struggled for goals there is nothing quite like a helping hand and that is precisely what Steven Reid provided, when he miscued Ambrose's free-kick past his own goalkeeper, Scott Carson.

The mood of celebration, though, was quickly deflated. West Brom had earlier put the ball in the net, only for Simon Cox's effort to be correctly ruled out for handball. Cox was booked. But there was nothing wrong with Gabriel Tamas's headed equaliser from Chris Brunt's free-kick, despite the Palace protests.

The game ebbed and flowed but Albion ought to have led at the interval, having pressed firmly on to the front foot to assume control. Cox, Brunt and Dorrans drew vital saves out of Speroni, the last extending the Palace goalkeeper spectacularly, while Roman Bednar glanced a header against the crossbar. For Palace Calvin Andrew might have done better than head wide of an empty near corner of the net.

"We certainly had the chances to win," said Di Matteo, who could reflect with pride at the accumulation of a club record 90 points. "For the integrity of the league, it was our duty to play our best available team. The players showed tremendous attitude."

Albion continued to look the classier side in the second half but, with Speroni performing further heroics, Palace demonstrated a spirit that will serve them well against Wednesday. Spurred on by the home crowd, they used a fierce collective work ethic in an attempt to bridge the gap in class.

Hart threw on the strikers Alan Lee and Stern John and both of them went close. Patrick McCarthy had earlier headed just wide and, with Danns having seen red following his moment of madness, Ambrose almost fashioned the fairytale finale in the sixth and final minute of stoppage-time. Hillsborough will stage the final act of the drama.