Crystal Palace 1
(Granville 79)


Wigan Athletic 1
(Ellington 45)

Palace's revenge mission turned into a salvage operation on Saturday as a well-organised Wigan side held up the Eagles' play-off charge.

In the build-up to this play-off six-pointer, chairman Simon Jordan had called his club's 5-0 televised humiliation at the JJB Stadium in November "a wrong that needs to be righted", insisting that "Wigan have to be beaten".

But his rallying call fell on deaf ears in a scrappy first half as Iain Dowie's men were frustrated by Wigan, before going behind when Nathan Ellington's hopeful strike hit Mark Hudson and looped over Nico Vaesen into the net.

The second half continued in much the same vein with the players and 18,799 crowd inside Selhurst Park surprisingly subdued considering the rewards at stake.

It looked like one of those days for Palace when 26 goal top-scorer Andy Johnson raced clear after 65 minutes and beat John Filan with a tidy finish, only to see his effort bounce off the inside of the post and cleared to safety.

It was only when, with 15 minutes left, Dowie threw caution to the wind by changing shape to 3-4-1-2 and introducing Dougie Freedman and Shaun Derry for Danny Butterfield and Aki Riihilahti, that Palace really started to get at Wigan's well-marshalled defence.

It was no more than they deserved when Danny Granville rose to head a Wayne Routledge free kick over the line with 11 minutes left. Although the ball clearly crossed the line, Latics keeper Filan clawed the ball away and the officials failed to award the goal, but thankfully Granville was on hand to nod home a second time.

Palace then threatened to get the winner, but the game was killed as a contest in injury time when referee Mark Thorpe controversially sent off two Wigan players for second bookable offences.

Jason Roberts should have seen a straight red for a clear elbow on Tony Popovic, who alongside the outstanding Mark Hudson kept him and Ellington relatively quiet all afternoon. But when the officials failed to spot or punish the offence, Popovic sought his own retribution. After the players squared up, Thorpe booked them both and, having already already been booked for dissent, Roberts was dismissed for the second time this season.

Having been booked minutes earlier for shoving over a breaking Freedman, Jason Jarrett repeated the offence in what appeared to be an accidental tangle of legs and also received his marching orders.

Afterwards Paul Jewell criticised the referee but graciously said: "I am happy with a point against a side with some terrific players and it was the most we deserved."

Iain Dowie said: "We deserved maximum points but I am certainly not disappointed with the draw.

"We lost 5-0 up at Wigan and I think everyone will agree that this is a different Crystal Palace from the one on show that day." Jordan and Palace may yet get their chance for revenge on a bigger stage in May.

Man of the match: Tony Popovic - He and Hudson kept Roberts and Ellington quiet all afternoon and were only beaten by a lucky deflection. His confrontation with Roberts epitomised his growing assertiveness under Dowie.

Crystal Palace: Vaesen, Butterfield (Freedman 75), Hudson, Popovic, Granville, Routledge, Hughes, Riihilahti (Derry 64), Gray, Johnson, Shipperley. Not Used: Berthelin, Black, Leigertwood.