Dougie digs Palace out of trouble to rescue point

Palace striker Dougie Freedman came to the rescue once again to grab the Eagles a point in a game where they deserved little.

The Eagles hitman came off the bench in the 72nd minute as Palace boss Peter Taylor desperately tried to salvage a point after Wolves took a deserved lead in the 63rd minute.

It looked as if it would be Mick McCarthy's day but after missing a sitter minutes before, Freedman came back to lash home a left-foot volley from the edge of the box to earn Palace a useful away point.

Before the Scot's arrival Palace looked a team desperately short of ideas and hardly threatened the Wolves goal during the first 45 minutes.

The hosts started brightly with the lively Jemal Johnson and Daniel Jones catching the eye with their direct running and invention in-and-around the box.

It was Jones who should have given Wolves a 19th minute lead after a fantastic individual run.

The winger picked the ball up from keeper Matt Murray's throw and ran the length of the field before side-stepping both Danny Butterfield and Mark Hudson to be in sight of goal. But somehow he managed to clip the ball wide of the post to let Palace off the hook.

Jones was causing all sorts of problems and it was his probing cross which caused more danger in the Palace box until Butterfield cleared over his own bar.

Palace had a rare attempt on goal five minutes before the break when Mark Kennedy, returning to Molineux for the first time since his summer move to Palace, warmed Murray's hands with a shot from distance.

After the break it was more of the same and Wolves looked the team likelier to break the deadlock.

The hosts moved up the gears as the half progressed and finally took an inevitable lead in the 62nd minute.

Lewis Gobern's in-swinging free-kick evaded everybody in the box and found it's way into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. It was all Wolves deserved and Palace were there for the taking.

But boss McCarthy took the negative step of removing his two most effective players in Johnson and Jones, settling for the 1-0 win.

With 20-minutes remaining Taylor brought on Freedman and Shefki Kuqi in place of the ineffective James Scowcroft and Clinton Morrison and the changes made an instant impact.

Freedman weaved his way through two Wolves defenders on the right-hand side off the box and after encouraging Murray to dive early, he chipped the ball over the keeper and over the bar.

But the striker was not to be denied four minutes later when his instinctive volley from a Kuqi flick-on flashed past Murray into the net to secure a point and put a golden tint on a drab Eagles display.

Palace star man: Dougie Freedman. How many times has he saved Palace? Came on with Kuqi to provide the attacking flair so desperately lacking and scored a great goal to boot.Palace: Turner 7, Butterfield 6, Hudson 7, Ward 7, Granville 6, Hughes 6 (Fletcher 46 5), Kennedy 6, McAnuff 7, Soares 6, Scowcroft 6 (Kuqi 74 6), Morrison 6 (Freedman 73 8)