January 14 2001

Crystal Palace

MIKAEL FORSSELL scored two as Crystal Palace beat Nottingham Forest by three goals to nil at the City Ground this afternoon. Finnish international FORSSELL found the net twice before the interval. Former Forest man Dougie Freedman added a third to the Eagles tally after the break.

Nottingham Forest started very well hitting the crossbar after just 68 seconds. It was 17-year-old Jermaine Jenas who missed from close range.

Forest then had two other big opportunities to open the score but new signing David Johnson and Riccardo Scimeca could not find the net.

The Eagles then got into the game and on 17 minutes Palace could have gone 1-0 up but Rubins' shot was saved by Forest goalkeeper Dave Beasant.

Three minutes later however the ball found its way into the Nottingham net. MIKAEL FORSSELL picked up a loose ball followed by some neat footwork and struck the ball into the left corner from 20 yards.

Palace's second came deep into first-half injury time. Forest captain Chris Bart-Williams lost the ball to Clinton Morrison who took the ball into the penalty area and unselfishly passed it to FORSSELL who scored his 10th goal of the season.

The second half started the same as the first, Nottingham having the best of the play but not able to find the net. Substitute Stern John had a good chance to pull one back but he also hit the crossbar.

Former Forest striker Dougie Freedman came on for Morrison, who was not pleased after he was taken off by manager Alan Smith, on 63 minutes and only five minutes later he delivered the sucker punch.

Freedman was boo-ed by the Forest fans but silenced them by sidefooting home a low Andrejs Rubins cross.

Crystal Palace moved up to 14th place after this win with 31 points from 27 matches.

Post-match comments

Palace boss Alan Smith was pleased by his sides finishing in the club's third away win the season.

Smith said: "Ours was superb, but it is not for me to comment on Forest's."

It was a memorable week for Smith's side with a 2-1 Worthington Cup semi-final, first leg triumph over Liverpool in midweek.

Alan Smith: "I was a little worried there might be a reaction today because it is easy for players to start believing their own publicity.

"We were off the pace to start with. Although it's nice to be doing well in the Cups, our main job is to get the club as high in the League as possible, so that was a good day's work."

Top scorer was far from pleased after being substituted in the 64th minute and in an angry reaction he threw his tracksuit top into the dug-out.

Smith said it was just "Clinton being Clinton": "He wants to score in every game and play in every game. But I want him firing on all cylinders against Sunderland in our FA Cup replay on Wednesday night."

Morrison commented: "It was just handbags as I was disappointed. But it has all been forgotten now."

Losing boss David Platt said: "We contributed to our own downfall again today by missing so many chances.

"We didn't react well to going a goal down and their second on the stroke of half-time effectively killed us off. But you've really got to give credit to Crystal Palace for the way they counter-attacked us."