A well-taken brace from Ben Watson and a late strike from substitute Shefki Kuqi ensured that Crystal Palace comfortably took all three points from Saturday afternoon’s televised clash against Barnsley.
The 23-year-old, who only two months earlier appeared to have engineered his exit from the South London club, popped up twice in the box to bag his goals—one from the spot and one from open play—to send the Selhurst Park crowd into raptures.
Kuqi—another player whose Eagles career looked to be over just a few months ago—put the icing on the cake with a delightful chip that wrapped up a 3-0 win, sending Palace up to 13th in the Championship on the back of three straight wins.
Palace had started the brighter side, as Paul Ifill and Victor Moses—from the right and left flanks respectively—probed the Barnsley defence with some testing crosses. With only Craig Beattie to aim for, however, the Tykes defence managed to hold firm.
Nevertheless, it only took 25 minutes for the home team to finally make their early superiority count. After Julian Speroni found himself in the right place to made a point blank save from Maceo Rigters’ header, the Argentinean shot-stopper sent the ball upfield in search of Moses, who profited from some hesitancy in the Barnsley defence to find himself clean through on goal.
Showing remarkable composure, the 17-year-old sent the ball passed the on-rushing Heinz Muller, but was brought down in the box by the Barnsley ‘keeper before he could put the ball into the unguarded net.
With all parts of the ground expecting a red, referee Anthony Bates only brandished a yellow.
Given an unlikely reprieve, the 6’4” Muller had the chance to make full amends for his error, but Watson made no mistake from the resulting penalty—sending the German ‘keeper the wrong way as the midfielder passed the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.
Palace had further chances—Beattie headed just over the bar from a 37th minute corner, and Watson tested the ‘keeper from a free kick a few minutes later—but had to walk off at half-time content with their 1-0 advantage.
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