Crystal Palace Fan View: Zaha's no cheat

Wilfried Zaha is not a cheat…

Wilfried Zaha and Watford have some history when it comes to penalties and that history was extended yesterday as he was denied a clear penalty that could have won Crystal Palace the match.

The first penalty incident, in the first half, the referee got right. Zaha had a hold of the defender, the defender had a hold of him and Zaha went tumbling as they ran. No penalty was the correct decision, but neither was it dive – he was clearly off balance as he tussled with Kabasele. Sure, he appealed, but he did not dive.

However, the second one was a stonewall penalty. Adrienne Mariappa clearly caught him as he made an ill-advised lunge for the ball as Zaha looked to get a shot off. Instead of a penalty, Zaha gets booked and booed for his troubles, with another ‘dive’ added to his growing tally.

The problem for Zaha and Crystal Palace is that these allegations stick. Ask anyone about Ashley Young or Dele Alli and one of the first comments out of their mouths will be about their propensity to fall over. Irrespective of what they’re doing at the moment, a spate of ‘dives’ will stick to them just as they will stick to Zaha because, in Zaha’s case, he is so good teams resort to physicality to stop him.

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Defence deserves plaudits for holding Watford at bay

The attacking focus centred around Wilfried Zaha, but Watford dominated the first half and could very well have gone into half time with an advantage. The pairing of James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakho at centre-back ensured that this wasn’t the case, with both turning in impressive performances. The displays of both were even better considering the dominance Watford enjoyed on their left hand side, with Joel Ward looking likely to get beaten every time anyone went near him.

Hennessey too did what he had to do. His best save arguably came from a ricochet off Joel Ward – he got down well to prevent an embarrassing own-goal and continued to do the normal stuff with a minimum of fuss. Not exactly gushing plaudits, but in combination with the two centre-backs in front of him it was a good effort to keep Watford at bay.

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Crystal Palace one win from being comfortable

Here I find myself repeating my sentiments from last week – one more win from our last three games will see us comfortably home.

Saturday’s draw extends the gap over 18th placed Southampton to six points, but with the exception of West Brom, every single side below us has at least one game in hand over us. If even a couple of those sides win we’ll be reeled back into the dogfight, but do still have the opportunity to secure safety for ourselves.

On the fixtures front, things are looking good for Crystal Palace. With Stoke and West Brom making lying in wait for us in the final two games of the season, and Leicester before that, we couldn’t ask for any more ‘winnable’ games than we have. Now we just have to win one of them.