Town's three match winning spell came to an end at Selhurst Park last night as a bizarre Tony Mowbray own goal gave Palace a second half lifeline.
The Blues lined up as at Forest and despite having the brighter opening found themselves a goal down after only five minutes. Matt Svenson put Leon McKenzie's cross over the line after Richard Wright could perhaps have done more to prevent the ball from reaching him. Town struck back quickly, however, through Matt Holland scoring his usual away game goal. A cross from David Johnson found Holland and he headed home.
Town were dictating things and it was little surprise when they went ahead. Scowcroft had missed a couple of chances when he really should have ddone better before David Johnson scored his thirteenth goal of the season with an excellent left foot strike. The half ended with Gary Croft having a good effort put over the bar and Fan Zhiyi lucky to get away with a booking after bringing Johnson down when he looked through on goal.
The second half started with a Leon McKenzie effort hitting the underside of the bar and Palace generally getting more of the play than they had previously, putting the perhaps tired Town defence under pressure.
There was a blow to Town in the 52nd minute when David Johnson had to be replaced with Jonas Axeldal. Town's leading scorer had picked up a dead leg in the first half and this was clearly hindering him.
The Palace equaliser came on 61 when a long ball was aimed at Svensson which Tony Mowbray tried to cut out. Unfortunately he only managed to send the ball high over the advancing Richard Wright and into the net for one of the oddest own goals you are likely to see.
The match ended with both sides having chances, but with Town having had the best of it over all. However, Palace has not been a happy hunting ground for Town of late and so a point might be seen as a good result on itself.
Neilski/Phil