Baltimore MD - Crystal Palace squandered a 2-0 half-time lead to come away with just one point from their long road-trip to Wilmington NC on Tuesday night. Despite being outshot by a margin of ten to three, Palace held a 2-0 advantage after the first 45 minutes on the strength of goals from Pat Healey and Val Teixeira, and thanks to a penalty save Brian Rowland in the Palace net. The Hammerheads’ aerial bombardment finally bore fruit midway through the second half courtesy of Jamie Holmes, and the comeback was complete 10 minutes from time on Trey Alexander’s penalty.
 Palace couldn’t have asked for a better start when, with only two minutes on the clock, Pat Healey received a square pass from Dan Lader and struck the ball firmly from the edge of the “D” into the upper left corner for his fifth goal in five games.
Soon afterwards, two Palace players combined to bring down a Wilmington forward inside the box. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot, but Brian Rowland saved brilliantly to keep Palace on top. Wilmington were ruing that miss five minutes later when Palace striker Larry Mark beat his marker on the right wing and swung a cross into the box. The ball bounced off a Hammerheads’ defender and fell for Val Teixeira who spun around and smacked it home with his left foot from the edge of the six.
Wilmington kept lumping it forward and on 67 minutes, they made their breakthrough. Jerrit Thayer put in a curling, angled cross from 40 yards out on the right wing. Jamie Holmes - who had just entered the match minutes earlier as a substitute - was underneath the ball as he stood about eight yards from goal and his well-laced header beat Brian Rowland to put the Hammerheads right back in the game.
Ten minutes from time, Wilmington’s persistence paid off as they were awarded another penalty. This time, Trey Alexander made no mistake leveling the score at 2-2 which is how the game would finish, extending Wilmington’s unbeaten streak to three.
Brian Rowland was Palace’s man of the match - apart from the penalty save, he was credited with seven saves as the Hammerheads outshot Palace 17-5 on the night.
“We struggled all night with the long ball into their strikers” explained Palace Co-Manager Jim Cherneski after the match. “We allowed their forwards to bring those long balls down too easily, too often. It was route 1 football but we just couldn't clear it out well enough and we left them with too many free balls. As well as we played against Cleveland, that’s how poorly we played defensively here tonight.”
Looking ahead to Palace’s next match, Cherneski added: “We have to come together and correct the problem by Tuesday.” That game sees them travel to Harrisburg PA to take on the City Islanders in the US Open Cup second round, with kickoff slated for 7:05pm. The winner will be rewarded with a home tie against the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer in the third round
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