ALAN PARDEW kept his promise to try and play on the front foot.
But his first match in charge of West Brom ended in a goalless stalemate against a Crystal Palace side who became the first club ever to fail to score in TEN Premier League away games.
Roy Hodgson’s side stretched their unbeaten run to four matches but it’s now 13 games without a win for Baggies, whose fans will have to pray Pards can live up to the ‘Pardiola,’ name they sang about at the start!
Palace suffered a setback before a ball had been kicked when goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey suffered an injury during the pre-match warm-up and had to stand down.
His place was taken by the experienced Julian Speroni who was spared from losing an early goal when Hal Robson-Kanu shot over from eight yards after Kieran Gibbs’ cross was deflected into his path.
Albion were playing on the front foot as they tried to impress their new boss. But Speroni saved Rondon’s ambitious effort from 25 yards and Rodriguez and Hegazi both missed headers when it looked easier to score.
Ben Foster almost handed Palace the lead when his footwork let him down following an Allan Nyom passback and Zaha looked certain to score.
However the frantic keeper somehow scrambled on all four and ushered the ball away using his chest, then an illegal hand to deny the Palace forward, who should have been awarded an indirect free kick at worst. The visitors were looking a real threat going forward and Evans did well to block Zaha’s shot before the Ivorian international was denied a penalty when he burst past Hegazi who clearly clipped his trailing leg to send him crashing.
Referee Michael Oliver waved aside Palace protests, to the dismay of Zaha whose look of wide-eyed bewilderment revealed exactly how he felt!
Foster blocked Benteke and then comfortably gathered the striker’s header before half-time. After the break chances were few and far between as Albion missed the calming influence and set-piece precision of Gareth Barry, who lasted only 30 minutes before injury forced him off.
Joel Ward produced a great block at the back post to deny Sam Field and the superb Jonny Evans cut out Zaha’s low cross when Benteke seemed set to score.
But Palace had Speroni to thank when he pulled off the save of the match to deny Jay Rodriguez, who had broken clear and seemed sure to score until the Argentine stuck out his left arm to deflect the ball to safety.
From The Sun
From The Sun
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