Crystal Palace 2-2 Aston Villa

Posted Monday, February 15, 2010 by theguardian.com

Stilian Petrov ensures Aston Villa and Crystal Palace must try again

Crystal Palace 2-2 Aston Villa
Crystal Palace's Darren Ambrose celebrates his brilliant free-kick that put his side 2-1 up against Aston Villa.

Crystal Palace's administrator may be rubbing his hands at the prospect of a fifth-round replay at Villa Park, but this side's best chance of progress into the quarter-finals may have gone. The Championship club were three minutes from conjuring the weekend's shock result when Stilian Petrov's flick at a corner forced a rematch. The six-figure fee to come from that contest will feel like scant consolation in these parts.

If the relief was Villa's, then the regret lay with Palace. Having exchanged first-half goals, these teams were struggling to muster much quality on this heavy surface when Darren Ambrose, his career flourishing as his club toils, battered a free-kick from 35 yards which seared through Brad Friedel's attempt to save. The ball scorched into the corner via the American's left hand but, while Ambrose subsequently looped a header on to the bar, Palace could not maintain that advantage.

Julián Speroni had already conjured a stunning close-range save from the substitute John Carew when, from the resultant corner, Petrov's dart across his marker went unchecked and Villa had their equaliser. Palace, a club stripped of incoming revenue streams as they seek to trade until the end of the season, will relish their share of the gate receipts to come, and possibly more television monies, yet this felt like a letdown. Their endeavour had deserved better.

Villa's pace and power had initially unnerved the hosts, Palace heaving to scramble the ball clear of their six-yard box as Claude Davis blocked superbly from Richard Dunne, then escaping the concession of a penalty when Ashley Young tumbled under vague contact from Nathaniel Clyne. Yet the visitors' whirlwind petered out and, with Warnock bellowing instructions from the technical area, Palace duly punctured a defence that has been virtually impenetrable in the Premier League this year.

Ambrose's corner, arced into the six-yard box, should have been cleared but Friedel – perhaps put off by Clint Hill's spring at the near-post – found himself boxed in by Stephen Warnock and Alan Lee for the unchallenged Johannes Ertl to nod into a gaping net in the 24th minute. The Austria international, a bit-part player in his 18 months to date at this club, had never previously scored for Palace. This seemed a timely moment to break that duck, with Ambrose's deflected free-kick later stinging Friedel's hands.

By then, the scores had been level for a long while. The home side had dared to dream for a little over 10 minutes before their desperate frailty at set-pieces was exposed and exploited. Warnock may have been unimpressed at the award of a free-kick near the right-hand touchline, though there was even less to appreciate in the manner James Collins strolled away from Hill and flicked a fine header through Speroni at his near post.

Petrov and Emile Heskey, the latter horribly wastefully, should have eased the visitors ahead from similar free-kick deliveries with Palace vulnerable. The England striker was replaced by John Carew at the interval, the Norwegian immediately forced Speroni to turn away a snapshot after edging free of Davis. Yet Villa's pressure was only ever sporadic, with the hosts' industry always offering hope of a riposte. When it came, courtesy of Ambrose's blistering effort, it was stunning, though Villa would not submit.