Another solid Tigers performance sees a point claimed after falling behind to Peter Taylor's Crystal Palace.  The game marked the post-hitting second debut of Dean Windass.

Rivers such as the Thames seem to your average Northerner quite harmless. Only if you're not from the country's capital would you think the Thames makes an interesting feature on the sprawling metropolis as the opening credits on Eastenders looks down on the City. Generally the sinister nature of the Thames is not really realised, yet it does hide a dark secret. Evidence can be seen from the stereotypical taxi driver response of "Oh, I can't go south of the River". Really, the river does seem to hold some mystical secret in London. Could it be as scary for the average North Londoner to take a trip over a bridge? Alas, you speak to some, you'd suspect that people from South London may as well be blue faced, who feast on the unwary traveller. Sometimes people from the north side do travel beyond the mystical line. Speaking to them after that, they appear to have got lost as soon as Waterloo Bridge disappears from their rear view mirror.

I suppose getting lost down there maybe a valid excuse why `south of the river' is so terrifying. Strangely though, this does seem to be an obsession with the north side dwellers. And just to make matters worse for Saturday, they warn of one place where many a person gets easily lost. Warnings are abound when unwary travellers head to a place known as Selhurst. A story goes that many people have been lost forever trying to find this venue for football. Normally I would laugh this off, safe in the knowledge a map would see me right. Keeping fresh supplies of that Northern traveller's food, Kendal Mint Cake. Eventually, I stepped of the train from the safe environs of North London at Selhurst, and you know that I found the ground with no problem. Really, I don't know what all the fuss is about.

Braving the wilds of South London, The Tiger team was ready for a few reunions with ex-team mates and managers

Myhill
Ricketts Turner Delaney Dawson
Marney Ashbee France
McPhee Parkin Forster

The reunions with members of the Palace side saw Leon Cort line up in the centre of their defence, whilst Stuart Green started off on the right wing. Of course, from last season, there was also out former manager Peter Taylor seated on the home team bench. Completing the reunions, Dean Windass's return to the Tigers saw him seated on the bench alongside Duke, Elliott, Coles and Duffy.

In a match that followed the script, issued to both sides prior to the match back in late September, the first half saw genuinely clear cut chances hard to come by.

An early opportunity saw McPhee release Dawson down the left, where a low cross was turned behind by The Tiger-villan, Stuart Green. A deep Marney corner saw Palace get a free kick for a foul on the keeper.

Soon afterwards a nice pass by Ashbee in the centre-circle found France on the left wing. His cross into the box didn't quite reach the ponderous Beast, who maybe could have done better if he'd come to the ball rather than wait for it to come to him. Therefore Palace had plenty of opportunity to make the clearance

From a throw on the left wing, McPhee whips in a cross into the Palace box. Under no pressure from any Tiger forwards the Palace Keeper, Flinders, claims the ball but looks like a rabbit caught in headlights.

Palace's first assault on the Tigers box came in the 7th minute with a long Green ball easily seen out by Myhill. Shortly afterwards, a long clearance from Flinders finds the Palace target man, Kuqi, whose turn and shot from 20 yards didn't cause too much concern for Myhill. A further chance for Palace came along with a free-kick on the edge of the area, besides the dead ball line following a foul by Ricketts. The looping free-kick is easily claimed by Boaz.

Another clearance by Flinders finds Delaney on the half way line, who head it to the waiting Beast, who turns and shoots from 30yds hardly troubles the Palace keeper as it trickles towards him. The Beast again gets another opportunity when a Myhill clearance is headed to Ashbee by Cort who plays the ball across to France. His cross to Parkin is once again cleared by Palace's Ward.

Turner is booked on 24 minutes after a foul out on the right wing. Some vigorous Stuart Green protests see him incurring the wrath of the Tiger fans. The resulting free kick on the left hand angle of the box is punched out by Boaz for a corner.

The game seems to be stuck in the midfield, with Stuart Green having for a spell taken a position of right wing-back in front of the Tiger masses, before wandering around the midfield that used to infuriate me so much when he was a Tiger. In fact he spent the rest of the first half playing on the left wing, presumably to get as much space as possible between him and the City fans.

Soon afterwards, a cross by Palace's Kennedy finds Kuqi, whose header looks goal-bound before Myhill tips it out for a corner. This is cleared following a 1-2 between Ashbee and McPhee to take the ball away.

A couple of incidents on the half hour mark fall to either team. First a shot by Forster, 20 yards out is blocked by Cort, which is collected by Ricketts on the right wing. His cross finds Marney, but a weak shot is easily collected. Up the other end, a strong run by Kennedy to the right wing, where his cross sees a soft header that hardly troubles Boaz.

A ball from the centre by Parkin puts McPhee one on one with the Palace keeper. He was heading wide of the area but falls under what I thought was a fairly soft challenge by the keeper. Perhaps the booking he received for diving was the correct decision, when perhaps he may have done better if he'd stayed on his feet.

That said, perhaps McPhee had been on the end of a more physical challenge than I'd first thought. As a minute later, he was laid injured towards the edge of the Tigers box. Palace played on whilst he was down, whereas in the past, opposing team would have sportingly put the ball out of play to allow the injured player get treatment. This season that sense of fair play has gone under the media led fury of players diving. As a result, Kuqi has the opportunity at a shot, which he puts well wide. Actually, maybe that was him being sporting, rather than it just being a poor shot. Anyway, McPhee gets taken off, and replaced, much to the acclaim of the travelling Tigers, by the returning hero Dean Windass.

Quickly, Deano gets involved in the game. A long ball is headed onto Windass by the Beast. His instinctive header reached Forster whose shot is blocked by Cort.

A through ball releases Green, with Delaney missing a challenge. Ashbee then manages to get across to clear.

From another Palace opportunity, the Tigers get another chance. First Freedman crosses the ball, which is cleared by Marney to Forster, who takes the ball to the edge of Palace's area, only to see his shot blocked once again by Leon Cort

Palace's last chance of the half sees a long ball from their right to the left hand angle of the box. Hughes tries to get on the end of the ball, but is collected by Myhill, who ends up very close to the edge of the box. In fact I suspect that it was about as close as the sending off decision at QPR last season.

The final chance of the half came after Forster was tripped about 25 yards out. With Windass, Marney and Dawson all lining up for the free-kick, Windass takes it, with his shot crashing off the right hand post. Forster reached the rebound but put his chance wide.

After the half time break, it seems that Peter Taylor has carefully worked out a new kick off routine. The ball is kicked off before it's punted to a winger on the left. This was about as effective as the old days when we used to punt the ball up the right, with Ricketts heading the ball clear. It should also be noted that Stuart Green had once again resumed his position on the right wing – presumably again to get as far away as possible from the Hull fans.

Following a long City ball, where a Palace defender appeared to handle in the area but the linesman gave Palace a free-kick for a push, Palace have a number of chances on the City goal.

A Palace attack down out right sees a shot punched clear by Myhill. A Palace corner is put low to the front post and is cleared by Ricketts and finally a further Palace corner is sent to the back post where Kuqi puts his header over the bar.

With the pressure increasing on City's goal, we go behind. A ball down the right finds McAnuff on the edge of the box. Ricketts dives in to try and make a challenge, but completely misses, where McAnuff cuts the ball back to the star of Palace's Dream Team, Carl Fletcher, who drives the ball past the despairing hand of Myhill from 30 yards.

City once again has a couple of half chances, again without seriously troubling the Palace keeper. First a long Boaz ball is flicked on by Parking to Windass, whose shot from 20 yards is well wide. The Ashbee on half way passes to Windass on the edge of the area. With 3 Palace defenders in his was, he plays it across the edge of the area to Marney who'd found some space, but his rather soft shot is easily saved. From that, Palace go straight up the other end, but the shot is just wide.

A free-kick on half way by Delaney is hit deep into Palaces box. Kuqi clears the ball to Marney whose shot is well over the bar.

A Palace ball down our right could spell trouble, as Ricketts slipped. However the ponderous Palace winger doesn't make the most of this chance, so Ricketts, still on the floor manages to head the ball clear.

Up the other end, a long ball forward finds Forster on the right wing. He cuts in on the angle of the box before driving into the side netting, whilst Parkin stands complaining in the middle of the box that he was clear.

Palace now replace Stuart Green with ex-Blade Paul Ifill.

A few more chances fall to City, again without too much trouble to the Palace goal. Parkin is hauled down by Cort for a free-kick about 30 yards out. This is played short to the Beast, but his drive is blocked. Later, with Dawson covered by 3 Palace defenders, he cuts the ball back to Parkin whose cross to the back post is put wide by Forster. Finally France on the left wing plays a 1-2 with Windass to reach the edge of the area, but France puts his soft shot wide.

Presumably, Peter Taylor then picks up his copy of the match script. He replaces Freeman with Soares and Palace take up a 4-5-1 formation.

Within a minute the balance is restored. Marney on the right wing, beats the opposing full-back, with his cross headed out for a corner. Marney takes the corner, crossing to Ashbee who is unmarked near the penalty spot. He is then free to guide his header into the back of the net, thus drawing the Tigers level.

A few minutes later, some Palace pressure sees Delaney concede a corner. From this, a chance falls to Cort, only to see his shot tipped up in the air by Myhill. As it appears from the stand that the ball may then agonisingly reach the line, a clearance gets to ball to the edge of the area, only for another shot to come back at the City goal. Once again a goal line clearance is made before City get the ball away.

A lack of communication at the back for Palace sees Cort put the ball out for a throw-in, when the keeper could have easily claimed the ball. This signals a substitution for both sides. First Elliott comes on to replace Ryan France, as Brown goes for the win, with a 4- 2-4 formation. Similarly Taylor brings off the effective winger Kennedy for Morrison, as Palace revert back to a 4-4-2.

Into the final 5 minutes of the match, a long Delaney ball from the left wing finds the Beast unmarked on the edge of the box. A poor shot is tipped wide by the Palace keeper, before the resultant corner is headed wide.

Following a Palace corner where Ifill hits the ball well over the home stands start to empty. Evidentially it's not just at the KC that home fans seem to have a desire to miss any potential closing minute goals.

The early leaving home fans may have had to kick themselves, had Morrison done better. He managed to out-pace the City defence, but took the ball wide, allowing our defence to get back and block his shot.

Two minutes into the four added on at the end of the match, Turner, under pressure from Ifill concedes a corner. The corner is played to the edge of the box, finding Kuqi, who puts his shot well over the bar.

The closing minutes tick by, and the referee's whistle signals the point gained by City.

Overall it was a fairly scrappy match with genuine chances few and far between. The battling City performance got us back into the game, but I also suspect the decision by Taylor to try and close the game down at 1-0 may have cost the home team the points.

With both QPR and Luton losing, the point saw City jump ahead of both sides in the battle against relegation, whilst defeats for both Leeds and Southend saw us extend our lead over bottom spot to 7 points.

HULL CITY (4-3-3): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Delaney, Dawson; Marney, Ashbee, France; Forster, Parkin, McPhee.  Subs: Windass (for McPhee, 37), Elliott (for France, 82), Duffy, Coles, Duke.

Goals: Ashbee 72

Booked: McPhee, Turner

Sent Off: None

CRYSTAL PALACE: Flinders, Lawrence, Hudson, Ward, Cort, McAnuff, Fletcher, Green, Kennedy, Freedman, Kuqi.  Subs: Ifill (for Green, 62), Soares (for Freedman, 70), Morrison (for Kennedy, 83), Butterfield, Kiraly.

Goals: Fletcher 51

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:  C Penton

ATTENDANCE: 17,012