60 THE GLORY YEARS
1988/89
30th August 1988
Crystal Palace 1 Chelsea 1
Matcha Report reproduced from the Croydon Advertiser
P
alace have never lost an opening match of the season under Steve Coppell. And the record remained intact in Tuesday’s starter at Selhurst Park – thanks to Gordon Durie. Chelsea’s Scottish striker ballooned his 44th minute penalty so high over the bar that he has probably had nightmares ever since. Not that Palace could have slept too soundly either. So eager that they were to impress that it all got a little uncontrollable. Perhaps Palace’s delayed start did not help. By the time they got around to kicking off their 1988/89 programme some teams in the division had already played two matches. Palace, it appeared, seemed to want to pack enough action into the one evening to make up for lost time! And all that energy might have been completely wasted had Durie showed them no mercy from his spot kick. Weighing everything up, though, Palace would have felt hard done by not to have taken something. They showed no lack of aggression or commitment and on chances had the edge on Chelsea. It was just that it all got somewhat frenetic at times with Chelsea, eager to make an early impact on the Second Division, suffering the same way, too. With both sides seemingly giving themselves little time to breathe, it wasn’t surprising that close combat
led to some wincing tackling and one or two unruly scenes. As a result it was a testing game for Solihull referee Vic Callow and his linesmen who, perhaps understandably, did not get it all right. There wasn’t much doubt about Chelsea’s disallowed effort in the fourth minute when Durie clearly impeded goalkeeper Perry Suckling from holding on to the ball. And there certainly wasn’t a problem with Chelsea’s one legitimate strike of the night in the 11th minute. Durie’s burst left Gavin Nebbeling in his wake and the cross was snapped up by Kevin Wilson who cracked the ball home.
PALACE
v
LIVERPOOL