Win lifts Palace off the bottom of the table

Crystal Palace 3 West Brom 0

Andy Johnson further enhanced his growing reputation with two goals to lift Crystal Palace off the bottom of the Barclays Premiership and raise hopes at a rain-lashed Selhurst Park that relegation this season is far from inevitable.

Palace manager Iain Dowie, who sees Johnson as an England-class striker unfortunate to find the likes of Jermain Defoe challenging for the same position, had been urging his side to play with more bravery, more urgency and more vibrancy all season.

Today he got it in spades as Palace turned in a performance as bright as the conditions in south-east London were miserable and moved 2-0 up inside 12 minutes.

Fitz Hall powered home a far-post header after a wonderful first-time cross from Wayne Routledge before Johnson scored his third penalty of the season.

Johnson struck again eight minutes into the second half for his seventh goal of the campaign and wheeled away to celebrate lifting Palace out of the relegation zone.

It is a victory which could prove crucial come the end of the season because, although it may still be October, today’s clash bore all the hallmarks of a traditional relegation battle.

Palace’s position, bottom of the table at kick-off, looked grave given they were up against a West Brom side who had lost just once in their last four games, including a victory over fourth-placed Bolton.

Johnson was the lone striker supported by a five-man midfield but there was no hint Palace were here to sit back and they worked two promising chances before Hall put them ahead.

Russell Hoult did well to hold Johnson’s flicked header before Routledge picked out Danny Granville unmarked at the back post, only for the Palace full-back to direct his header straight at the West Brom ‘keeper.

But in the slick conditions and with quick, enterprising forward play, Palace were carving through the West Brom defence and took the lead after five minutes with a wonderfully worked move.

West Brom failed to sufficiently clear a Palace corner, Tony Popovic volleyed the ball back to Routledge whose first time cross found Hall unmarked at the far post.

It was the ideal start for Palace but they have twice been beaten having been a a goal up and they pressed on, hungry for another.

Johnson might have been the lone striker but he was causing Thomas Gaardsoe and Darren Moore all sorts of problems and was supported well by Routledge and Joonas Kolkka.

Johnson stole a march on Gaardsoe and was held back as he stretched to reach Kolkka’s teasing cross to earn the penalty he then blasted past Hoult.

Palace continued to play neat, clever football through midfield, attempting to pick out Johnson whose pace and trickery were difficult for West Brom to check.

Hoult was forced to come charging off his line to deny Johnson after Michael Hughes had spotted his angled run and dinked a clever ball through.

West Brom, meanwhile, were struggling to create any chances of note and were reduced to firing speculative long-range efforts which barely troubled Gabor Kiraly.

They almost snatched a goal back inside three minutes of the restart when Robert Earnshaw escaped from the Palace defence, but he rattled Kiraly’s crossbar from 12 yards out.

And to sum up West Brom’s day, Johnson then showed the Welshman exactly how it is done with a magnificent solo effort.

He picked up the ball from deep, ran unchallenged to the edge of the West Brom area and drove the ball low and hard past Hoult’s despairing drive.

Paul Robinson produced a text-book challenge to stop Johnson who was charging forward into the West Brom box.

West Brom’s best chances were both snuffed out by Kiraly, who dived at Earnshaw’s feet and then held a drive from Zoltan Gera which was hard but straight at him.

Dowie began to make the changes in the closing stages but Palace continued to press and Vassilis Lakis, who was on for Hughes, almost squeezed the ball home from an acute angle with just minutes remaining.

Dowie walked over to the Holmesdale End at the final whistle and punched the air, sharing his joy with the Palace fans who will have left Selhurst Park wet but warmed by the performance of their team and relishing next week’s trip to Birmingham.