<div class="ds-headline" id="ds-headline">Worst yet for Ritchie as away slump continues </div> <div class="ds-firstpara" id="ds-firstpara">Crystal Palace 2 Barnsley 0 Tom Collomosse</div> <div class="va-bodytext" id="va-bodytext">BARNSLEYmust take advantage of successive home games against Ipswich and bottomclub Southend United before a Saturday lunchtime trip to fellowstrugglers Leeds United if they are to have a realistic chance ofmoving out of the relegation zone. Last season's League One play-offwinners gave what manager Andy Ritchie described as "probably the worstperformance since I have been here" as Crystal Palace claimed theirfirst win in nine Championship matches to ease the pressure on managerPeter Taylor. First-half goals from James Scowcroft and ClintonMorrison were enough to see off a poor Barnsley side, who have losteight of their 10 league matches away from home this season. Despiterestating his support for former Hull manager Taylor, Palace chairmanSimon Jordan had demanded an improvement from the players. Barnsleywere so tepid that this match gave little indication as to whetherPalace have turned the corner after six defeats in their previous sevenmatches. Taylor brought in goalkeeper Iain Turner on loan fromEverton during the week, and the Scotland under-21 international waspreferred to former Barnsley player Scott Flinders between the posts. Fromthe beginning, Barnsley looked extremely vulnerable when defendingset-pieces, and they had goalkeeper Nick Colgan to thank for keepingthem level in the fifth minute when he pushed away the unmarked DarrenWard's header from Mark Kennedy's free-kick. A minute later, Morrison shot over the Barnsley bar from eight yards after collecting Danny Granville's cross from the left. Barnsleyfailed to act on these early warnings, however, and more shoddy work atthe back saw them fall behind in the 15th minute. Once again, thevisitors failed to deal with Kennedy's free-kick from the left, andScowcroft had the simple task of slotting the ball in from six yardsafter Tom Soares' effort had been deflected into his path. BobbyHassell almost scored an own goal in the 28th minute when he headed aloose ball over Colgan, who recovered just in time to save histeam-mate's embarrassment. Colgan could not prevent Palace doublingtheir lead four minutes later. Soares picked up possession in midfieldand burst through three Barnsley challenges before seeing his 10-yardeffort parried by Colgan – but Morrison was there to head the ball intothe unguarded net. Barnsley improved marginally at the start of thesecond half, but still failed to test Turner, their only chance comingwhen Kennedy scrambled away Daniel Nardiello's near-post cross. Palace,on the other hand, continued to cause problems. CrystalPalace: Turner, Granville, Ward, Hudson, Butterfield, McAnuff, Hughes,Soares, Kennedy (Fletcher 84), Scowcroft (Kuqi 71), Morrison (Freedman77). Unused substitutes: Flinders, Lawrence. Barnsley: Colgan,Hassell, Kay, Reid, Heckingbottom, McIndoe, Togwell, Howard, Devaney(Wroe 75), Wright (Hayes 59), Nardiello. Unused substitutes: McParland,Austin, Williams. Booked: Hassell. Referee: K Friend (Leicestershire). Reds man of the match: Nick Colgan.</div> <div class="va-date" id="va-date">20 November 2006</div>
