Lukaku saves another Palace away day ‘smash and grab’

Last night’s game was a tale of happiness at earning a point away to an in-form team, mixed with a degree of regret that we couldn’t have snatched all three.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we deserved all three – not by a long shot. To say we were the better side wouldn’t be true of what actually happened and would do a very good Everton side a disservice. However when we went ahead with only 25 minutes left on the clock I think we all thought that maybe, just maybe, we could come away from with another three points from an area which has been a happy hunting ground for Palace of late. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

We didn’t start badly, Wickham had a shot within the first minute but soon Everton’s dominance of the ball came to the fore. Everton began to fashion more chances but in terms of quality I think Palace had the best chance of the half when Yannick Bolasie pulled off a little trick to beat his man before Wickham’s header from the resulting cross was saved/blocked by Howard at his near post. It’s no exaggeration to say that a foot either way and we see Wickham wheeling away in celebration as he scores his first goal of the season but alas, he did not.

While it’s frustrating that Wickham has now failed to score in his first 7 appearances for Palace his movement last night encouraged me. To even get on the end of Bolasie’s cross he had to gamble on the near post and then win the header – both of which he did. That kind of movement is intuitive, you can’t coach the instinct to get in those positions and while he didn’t score this chance in particular, as long as continues to act on instinct and make movements like that one then he will score. As soon as he stops making those kind of runs, as soon as we’re seeing balls fly across the six yard box unattacked I will be the first one to call for a change, but until such a time I still see Connor as our number one striker for what he brings to the team as a whole.

Amazingly it took until the 75^th minute for the deadlock to be broken and it was ‘that man’ Scott Dann, our very own Merseyside specialist, with a header which beat Howard. Some more clinical breaking in the second half and that could have been goal 2 or 3 – Cabaye had a chance on the break before being crowded out and Bolasie burst from a corner that drew a decent save out of Howard.

However it was certainly not one way traffic and the man at the forefront of Everton’s attack caused as many problems as I had feared. Lukaku hit the post once, the bar another, set up Cleverley who drew a fantastic save out of Hennessey and of course scored the goal that pulled Everton level. His link up play was exquisite at times, I will openly admit that the front four of Everton can be a joy to watch - Lukaku alone could have had a hat-trick but thankfully that is now lined up for another team on another day. I think Pardew said it after the game, but somebody like Lukaku is somebody for Wickham to attempt to emulate and if Connor can get anywhere close to his goal return (50 goals in 100 appearances) then Palace will most certainly be onto a winner.

That draw lifts us up to 6^th in the league, a position I admit I didn’t see us in at the start of the season, however our performances have completely merited a position in the top 7 or 8 of the league. The next challenge will be to successfully negotiate the busy Christmas period and then hopefully do a little bit of business in January to help firm up (and push on from?) our position in the top few; boy is it an exciting time to be a Palace fan!