Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle
by Gene Sylvester
at Selhurst Park

WITH both teams racking up eight draws between them in the opening eight games of the season, it wasn’t beyond the realms of reality to surmise that Saturday afternoon’s encounter between Crystal Palace and Newcastle would probably end in a draw too.

And though it had looked as though Palace had put paid to that statistic with a late Christian Benteke winner, it was ruled out by VAR, resulting in the points being shared in a 1-1 draw.

With Newcastle’s new owners in the stands, for long periods the away side set about providing them with an idea as to just how big a job they have taken on at St James’ Park to turn round the fortunes of the north-east club. 

“We came for the win but the next best thing was the draw,” claimed caretaker manager Graham Jones, despite leaving a wealth of attacking talent — and Steve Bruce regulars — on the bench in Joe Willock, Miguel Almiron and Joelinton in his first match in charge since Bruce’s departure last week.

The first half of this match was pretty much a non-event, but the home side carried the greater attacking emphasis with Connor Gallagher and Michael Olise a constant threat going forward.

It was the Olise-Gallagher combination that brought about the first serious chance of the game in the 20th minute when the Chelsea loanee found Olise in space on the right. 

The ex-Reading winger jinked back onto his left foot and delivered a scintillating cross to the back post, where Christian Benteke rose highest to head the ball against the post.

Tyrick Mitchell pounced on the loose ball but his shot from an acute angle was instinctively saved by Karl Darlow in the Newcastle goal.

The second half started with a bit more tempo, and Palace’s good approach play finally paid off.

The ever-impressive Gallagher showed grit and determination to wrest the ball from two Newcastle players before feeding the ball wide to Mitchell.

The Palace left-back hung up a lofted cross to the back post where Benteke once again climbed above all to nod home.

The pattern of the game up to this point had suggested that one goal would probably be enough to earn Patrick Vieira’s men the three points, but 15 minutes later Newcastle drew level with a sublime overhead kick from Callum Wilson.

The home side thought that they had wrapped up the game in the dying minutes when Benteke rose unchallenged to meet a James McArthur corner, thumping his header into the back of the net. 

But as the Palace bench and fans celebrated, VAR was checking the goal and referee Darren England ruled out the goal, after consulting the VAR screen, for a foul by Marc Guehi on Ciaran Clark that had prevented the Newcastle defender from challenging Benteke for the ball.

“I saw the incident in the dressing room and I believe the decision was too harsh for us, but we have to accept the referee’s decision and move on,” reflected the Palace boss when asked about the VAR decision.

And Vieira was understandably disappointed with the end result. “When you play the way that we did today, and only get a point, then of course it is frustrating. We have to be more clinical at the front and at the back.”

Jones was clearly the happier of the two managers and welcomed the hard-fought away point: “You have to respect a point in the Premier League.”