Football: Armstrong hits Palace to new heights: Southend are sunk

Southend United. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Crystal Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

LIKE his team, Chris Armstrong is destined for a far higher stage than modest Roots Hall and last night his goal, No 23 for the campaign and accepted with supreme confidence and aplomb, gave Crystal Palace the unmistakeable look of First Division champions.

With five games remaining they are riding high and handsome, clear of Nottingham Forest by 10 points. On Saturday Palace and their noisy, expectant supporters receive Millwall, who lie third. Victory would leave them requiring just five more points to be sure of returning to the Premiership after one season away.

This time they will make sure they are sure. Last year they embarrassed themselves when they set off on a celebratory lap of honour in the mistaken belief that they were safe a week before relegation was sealed. It remains an unhappy memory for Alan Smith and his team and ensures that the collective foot is now hard down on the boards until there is no room for doubt.

Palace had to approach it that way because Southend had prepared themselves to make life as awkward as possible and could well have succeeded in their aim. They equalised within five minutes of the second half, Chris Powell, who began his career with Palace, launching a high one from the touchline which Andy Ansah could not reach, but behind him waited Jonathan Hunt who controlled the ball before steering it deftly wide of Nigel Martyn.

Southend went close again through Phil Gridelet in the 70th minute and the miss proved doubly expensive. Just a minute later, from another accurate centre - a feature of this game throughout - on this occasion from John Humphrey, Armstrong killed the ball in an instant before evading Paul Sansome's despairing dive to score.

The prolific striker thought he had done just that with the game's first serious sortie, but the Southend goalkeeper marked his 500th appearance with a splendid smothering save. Nevertheless, he was beaten in the 33rd minute when, from Simon Rodger's corner, Eric Young headed powerfully home.

Southend (1-3-4-2): Sansome; Bressington; Poole, Edwards, Bodley (Jones, 77); Hunt, Sussex, Gridelet, Powell; Ansah, Otto. Substitutes not used: Royce (gk), Payne.

Crystal Palace (4-4-2): Martyn; Humphrey, Young, Coleman, Gordon; Shaw, Southgate, Rodger, Salako; Williams (Dyer, 86), Armstrong. Substitutes not used: Woodman (gk), Bowry.

Referee: G Pooley (Herts).