Crystal Palace 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
by Gene Sylvester
at Selhurst Park
 

SELHURST Park hosted fans for the first time in nine months yesterday, when the heroics of Palace keeper Vicente Guaita held Jose Mourinho’s men to a 1-1 draw.

The home fans fully played their part in reigniting the sorely missed Selhurst roar, and despite their impact and that of the Palace keeper overall, Guaita would have been a little disappointed with the goal that he conceded.

Kane picked up the ball 30 yards out with seemingly no immediate danger to the Palace goal, but the England star’s speculative strike caught everyone by surprise — including the keeper, who got nowhere near the ball as it nestled into the bottom corner.

As much as the players revelled in playing in front of the Palace faithful, referee Kevin Friend may not have been so enthused as a string of dubious free kicks for Spurs prompted cries of frustration from the home crowd — though the loudest of all came when a free kick was awarded in the favour of Wilfried Zaha.

The home side relentlessly pushed for an equaliser in the second half despite the clear and obvious threat the away side poses on the counter.

And the Palace fans were given something real to cheer about in the 80th minute. An Eberechi Eze free kick caused problems in the Spurs defence before the tireless Jeffrey Schlupp swooped — firing home the equaliser from 8 yards out.

That finally prompted Spurs back into life and Guaita redeemed himself in fine fashion as Mourinho’s men pushed for a winner.

After Ben Davies’ overhit cross cannoned against the crossbar, Guaita did well to save Kane’s header.

But he saved his best until last, flinging himself to his right in added time to spectacularly keep out Eric Dier’s free-kick, which was bound for the top corner.

A draw was nothing less than the home side deserved, which Mourinho was quick to acknowledge.

“Palace deserved their goal based on their second-half performance and therefore deserved the point,” he admitted.

The Spurs boss also conceded that his side didn’t create as many opportunities as he would have liked while they led 1-0. 

“I have to admit that we didn’t create more chances because Crystal Palace didn’t let us.”

Palace boss Roy Hodgson was expectedly delighted with his team’s performance and the timely return of the home crowd. 

“The equaliser was well-deserved after a sustained spell of pressure from us,” he said.

“We can go home happy with our performance today and I am glad we were able to do that in front of 2,000 supporters.”