The roof fell in on Crystal Palace last night as Wimbledon, the ungrateful tenants who have consistently made better use of their Selhurst Park surroundings than the landlords, scored three times in 12 minutes to record their first Premiership win since early December.
Two headers from Carl Leaburn, the lanky striker who at Charlton gained notoriety for an inability to score, and a third from Peter Euell condemned Palace to a 12th home game without a League win. It adds weight to the belief that "home" for Palace next season will be the first division.
Palace had won on this ground in September, but as Wimbledon occupied the home dressing-room on that occasion, it went down as one of the five wins they had impressively compiled as a visiting side. Significantly, the match winner on that less-than-memorable afternoon was Attilio Lombardo.
How Palace have missed the Italian's creative ways, winning only once during his prolonged absence with a thigh strain. To make matters worse Lombardo has been joined on the sick-list not only by his compatriot Michele Padovano but also by Paul Warhurst and Neil Shipperley. Initially, as Palace's wide men showed that they had the beating of their opponents, the night augured well for the bulk of the Selhurst Park crowd and Neil Sullivan had to deal with two curling balls hit from the right after first Jamie Smith and then Marcus Bent took the opportunity to take on Ben Thatcher who was struggling to come to grips with the pace of the game after a lay-off.
Wimbledon retained three players in attack which allowed room for the game to flow had there been players with the nous to make use of it. Sadly none appeared willing to seize the opportunity and as a result we waited a long time for a goalscoring chance worthy of the name.
One came when Andy Linighan nodded on an Andy Roberts corner, but Bruce Dyer as unable to keep his shot down. It was an improved spell from Palace, while a long-range attempt from Neil Ardley was a reminder that nothing had happened to change Wimbledon's belief that this was a game they could win.
In a dazzling 12-minute spell after the interval they did just that, punishing Palace's failure to deal with a series of high balls. It was a sad indictment on a team who include a cordon of six-footers in their threeman central defence. Leaburn's first in the 47th minute was set up by Kenny Cunningham, the recent recruit producing a firm header that beat Kevin Miller on his near post.
Leaburn's second four minutes later should have been stopped by the Palace goalkeeper, while the third convinced Palace that the fates were also against them. Miller did better this time to repel Peter Fears' far-post effort, but then saw Leaburn strike a post, the rebound falling kindly for Euell.
UEFA last night promised that they would do all they can to stand in the way of Wimbledon moving to Dublin. Wimbledon recently went over UEFA's heads to the European Commission, asking them to investigate whether the FAI's block on their proposed move breaks European law on freedom of trade.
Yesterday's statement read: "We do not support such a move because of the damaging effect it would have on domestic football in European countries. Furthermore, UEFA emphasises that, in accordance with its statutes, football played within a national territory is the responsibility of the UEFA member association of the territory concerned. Therefore, UEFA is against any move to play domestic football outside a national territory."
CRYSTAL PALACE: Miller, Edworthy, Gordon, Roberts, Linighan, Dyer, Brolin, Bent (Ginty 67), Smith, Ismael (Rodger 61), Hreidarsson. Subs Not Used: Nash, Quinn, Emblen. Booked: Brolin. WIMBLEDON: Sullivan, Cunningham, Jones, Blackwell, Thatcher, Perry, Hughes, Ardley (Castledine 89), Euell (Clarke 75), Fear, Leaburn. Subs Not Used: Heald, Reeves, Cort. Booked: Fear. Goals: Leaburn 47, 51, Euell 57. Att: 14,410.
Referee: K W Burge (Tonypandy).
