MOTD- Crystal Palace 1-0 West Ham United

By on December 3, 2013

West Ham United certainly played like they would pull away with the over Crytsal Palace, a team struggling against relegation, but Tony Pulis pulled off the surprise win in his first home match in charge of Stoke City. Pulis watched his side be dominated by West Ham for the majority of the midweek fixture, only for a first half Marouane Chamakh goal to give Palace a vital three points to lift them off the bottom of the Premier League table.

The forward’s second goal of the season could have a massive effect on the team that rested bottom of the table for weeks, who now are only three points away from their way out of the relegation zone. Yet was no walk in the park to win their third match of the season, with Pulis’ side having to defend for their lives to keep the clean sheet.

Palace began the match on top, with Barry Bannan curling a twenty-yard effort just wide of the post in the fourteenth minute. Jason Puncheon then blasted a swerving shot into the arms of Jussi Jaaskelainen from twenty-five yards out, but West Ham gained control of their footing and fell into the drivers seat. The visitors attempted to take the lead via a classy free-kick routine in the thirtieth minute in which Mark Noble scooped a West Ham free-kick over the wall to Kevin Nolan, who, on the spin, slightly mis-hit a volley which landed safely in the arms of Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni. Just seven minutes later Mohamed Diame nearly put West Ham in front as Sam Allardyce’s side continued to dominate. Stewart Downing curled a cross into the box from the right, which Diame headed narrowly over from eight yards.

However Palace took the lead just three minutes later when Bannan’s corner from the right was cleared back out to the right wing. Bannan got to it first before looping a lovely cross towards the six yard box, where Chamakh flicked a header into the bottom corner to make it 1-0. Palace held onto the lead into halftime, and came out of the break pushing forward. Puncheon came inches from doubling their lead in the fiftieth minute as his deflected shot from the edge of the box nicked out off the post, and just moments later Jerome should have scored when he whizzed by James Collins down the middle. The forward burst in on goal and only found his low shot denied by the outrushing Jaaskelainen, yet West Ham soon became dominant again. The visitors possession nearly paid off when Downing snapped a volley into the bottom corner, only for the goal to be called back for offsides. Allardyce’s side continued to push forward, but couldn’t find that crucial equalizer and after five minutes of added time the match ended 1-0.
Man of the Match: Barry Bannan

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.