Watch highlights of Crystal Palace vs Norwich in the Premier League.
Watch official Crystal Palace v Norwich City highlights.
Crystal Palace’s recent revival under new manager Tony Pulis faltered again when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by fellow-strugglers Norwich City.
It means Palace dropped back into the Premier League bottom three as they are overtaken by Fulham, who won 2-1 at home to second-from-bottom West Ham United.
The conditions were far from conducive to flowing football as Pulis had warned before the game, which only went ahead on a soggy Selhurst Park pitch after a late inspection by referee Mike Dean.
Pulis, who ironically lost his first match in charge after replacing Ian Holloway away at Norwich, said: “There are certain areas of the pitch which will be difficult, but it seems as though the ball is rolling OK.”
And so it proved, although Palace seemed to have mastered the conditions slightly better than their opponents in the early stages, but had little to show for their efforts before they fell behind shortly before half-time.
Norwich went in front in the 38th minute from their first real attack as Wes Hoolahan set Gary Hooper away and his knock back for Bradley Johnson teed up the midfielder for a right-foot shot from outside the box which cannoned off Julian Speroni’s left-hand post and into the top right corner.
But Palace fought back to equalise a minute before the break when Leroy Fer fouled Mile Jedinak in the area and Jason Puncheon stepped up to convert the resulting penalty left-footed into the bottom right corner.
There was little more to shout about in the second half beyond Fer getting his marching orders nine minutes from the end for another bad foul on Jedinak.
Norwich held out and will have been marginally the more satisfied with the point even though it extended their winless run to five games – a poor return for their £20m summer spending spree.
The draw keeps them just above the drop zone and under-pressure manager Chris Hughton will be glad to have got something from a ground where the Canaries have now failed to win in 14 visits.
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