FIRST DIVISION PLAY-OFF SEMI FINALS
Crystal Palace 3 Sunderland 2In a rip-roaring game at Selhurst Park Crystal Palace managed to get a foot in the door of the Cardiff final with an exciting victory over Sunderland but apart from the win there was little else to give a clue as to which side would reach the Millennium Stadium.
Ahead of tonight's return leg at what will be a jumping Stadium of Light, Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy said: "A lot of people might think it's over. It was a good win for them but if we had lost 1-0 at Selhurst we might have taken that."
After a goalless but pulsating first half, there was uproar when the referee awarded a penalty to Sunderland, six minutes into the second half, after Tony Popovic felled Carl Robinson and Marcus Stewart scored. Within 90 seconds Palace were level with a stunning looping header from ace marksman Neil Shipperley. Twelve minutes later Palace took the lead when Danny Butterfield's long-range shot took a wicked deflection off Phil Babb to swerve past Poom, although the keeper got a hand on it.
The football was breathtaking, for its pace if not its quality and Sunderland looked to have given themselves a massive boost when the Palace defence was all at sea, following an 85th minute corner, and Kevin Kyle swept the ball home from close range. But Palace weren't finished when Andrew Johnson, who had been busy without scoring, all night, did what he has been doing regularly all season.
The Nationwide League's leading scorer raced down the left flank before cutting inside and netting his 32nd goal of the season with a fierce shot that gives Palace a slight edge going into tonight's second leg.
After the game Iain Dowie said: "We've taken a narrow victory from a very edgy occasion. We know it's going to be difficult at the Stadium of Light but the lads deserve to go to the play-off final. We need just one more gargantuan effort."
Although it's still close I think the major factors to be taken from the first leg is this, obvious though it might be. Palace are capable of scoring goals, one, two maybe even three at the Stadium of Light and Sunderland, for all their Premiership experience, are just as likely to concede three goals as they are to score them.
I think there could be an inordinately proportionate number of goals tonight and it could come down to which side defends the goals scored, best, as well as the side that keeps its nerve best. It will certainly be no place for the faint-hearted at the Stadium of Light.
Ipswich 1 West Ham 0
Darren Bent put a troublesome week behind him with the only goal of the game that gives Ipswich a slim lead to take to Upton Park tomorrow. And the irony of Bent's goal, just short of the hour, is that Joe Royle was about to substitute him.
Indeed, after the game, the Ipswich boss said: "The lad has had a traumatic week (following his arrest for a pellet gun incident) and it didn't look like it was his day, but I decided to leave him on because he can get you a goal. He's a Johnny-on-the-spot kind of player."
Bent himself said: "It has been a difficult week but the manager kept faith with me and I am just pleased to have rewarded him with a goal." And what a priceless goal it might prove to be.
Ipswich played a cool game against a West Ham side that wasn't on top of its game and with Magilton and Wright dominating midfield they really failed to respond after Bent's goal, which was a typical piece of goal-poaching by the youngster.
Wilnis played Jermaine Wright in, on the left of the Hammers penalty area. Wright laid it off to Naylor and when the midfielder crashed his shot against the bar it popped up off the lush Portman Road turf and Bent was the quickest to react and nod home his 17th goal of the season.
What was significant for the remainder of a game, in which the two sides cancelled each other out, was the clean sheet Ipswich kept to give them that slender lead.
Town conceded 72 goals during the regular league season and back on September 13th were rock bottom of the First Division. If they can be similarly tight at Upton Park a Cardiff date could be just one game away from reclaiming the Premiership place they lost in 2002.
But Hammers' boss Alan Pardew has forewarned Ipswich of the reception they face in the East End, saying: "I make Ipswich favourites now but let's see how they cope with a hostile, jumping atmosphere at our place. It will be a cracking night."
Joe Royle, as cool as ever, said: "I've never been anything less than confident. On September 13th we were bottom of the league so well done to the lads. If you'd have said to me then that we would be in the play-offs I would have taken it."
