Crystal Palace 2 Aston Villa 2:NEIL WARNOCK departed this arena spitting "disgrace" and "bitter" through his fury, the locals numbed at seeing a quarter-final snatched from their grasp at the last, though reality suggests the FA Cup continues to be kind to Crystal Palace.
This competition effectively continues to sustain the club through administration; the debts may be €35 million but the six-figure fee from the replay could be critical to Palace’s very survival.
It was hard for Warnock to acknowledge as much as he digested a decision that had whipped him up into his customary frenzy as a frantic contest lurched to its conclusion. The home side led through Darren Ambrose’s scorching free-kick when Julian Speroni somehow blocked John Carew’s downward header from Ashley Young’s delivery, the ball flicking up off the Aston Villa substitute Nathan Delfouneso and behind.
The referee, apparently unsighted, looked to his linesman for clarification and a corner was erroneously awarded. The home side were still flapping in disbelief as Stilian Petrov veered away from Shaun Derry to meet Stewart Downing’s set-piece kick and flick a fine header down and through Nathaniel Clyne guarding the far post. “It’s disappointing, it’s bitter, it’s a disgrace,” fumed Warnock. “The ball comes off Delfouneso and the officials wait to see which way they should give it . . . and it’s a Premier League team losing 2-1, so we’ll give it to them.
“I spoke with [the linesman] Mr Massey and what he said was: ‘When I watch it at home, if I was wrong, then I may be suspended.’ Well, I don’t feel any sympathy if he is suspended. I hope it’s for a long time. Does he realise what it means to a club who can’t afford this, that or the other but who are giving everything only to be let down by, how should I put it, incompetence?”
Emotions were understandably raw in the heat of disappointment, with the club’s future potentially hinging on decisions as seemingly innocuous as these. Palace’s administrator, Brendan Guilfoyle, has drawn up cashflows that would sustain the club to the end of the season, though they are reliant on the Football League releasing the funds raised by Victor Moses’s €2.8 million sale to Wigan to cover their €921,315-a-month wage bill. Guilfoyle meets the league tomorrow, some 24 hours before the club host their relegation rivals Reading.
He has drawn optimism from the 25 inquiries lodged as to a possible takeover, two of which could yet offer Palace a longer-term future. The replay on February 24th will help in the short term. If the match is televised, Palace can hope to generate a further €460,689 for which they had not budgeted, even if the prospect of Reading or West Bromwich Albion away in the last eight is hardly tantalising.
The Villa manager, Martin O’Neill, conceded it was better to be in the draw than absent despite the fact the replay will take place four days before his side’s League Cup final appearance against Manchester United. In truth he was grateful to have a second chance.
Johannes Ertl’s first goal for Palace, a free header at Ambrose’s corner with Brad Friedel blocked off by Alan Lee and Stephen Warnock, had punctured Villa’s early pressure. Their riposte was impressive, James Collins heading Downing’s free-kick through Speroni, though profligacy then undermined their challenge as Emile Heskey and Petrov steered headers wide before the interval.
Ambrose’s excellence might have knocked them out of the competition. The midfielder’s free-kick battered from 35 yards was staggering, the header that looped on to the angle of post and bar moments later agonising.
For 17 tantalising minutes, Palace could consider a place in the last eight for the first time since 1995 – when they were a Premier League club and on a sounder financial footing. As it is, they were left to pray ITV choose to televise the replay, with its resultant fee.
