Horlock breaks deadlock for humdrum City

Manchester City 1 Crystal Palace

They call it Murphy's Law in more polite circles, elsewhere they refer to Sod. No sooner had Kevin Keegan eulogised about the entertainment value of his team than they underperformed with maddening perversity. Humdrum is not a word used often about Manchester City, but they fitted the description against Crystal Palace yesterday.

Not that they will be moaning too much at Maine Road. The tricks might have fallen flat, but the desired outcome followed anyway and, as Wolves were being exposed as sheep by Grimsby, the win enhanced City's prospects of returning to the Premiership as First Division champions. They now have a five-point advantage over their closest rivals, with a game in hand.

Kevin Horlock got the deciding goal after 10 minutes, but the anticipated rout did not follow and Palace slipped out of Manchester with their play-off aspirations damaged but their goal difference relatively unharmed.

"It wasn't a classic, I don't think people will be rushing out to buy the video," Keegan admitted. "The important thing is that the three points count just as much as if we'd played fantastic."

The result means City have won their last six matches, which is a run to please any manager, and Keegan had positively purred in his programme notes. "There is no doubt in my mind that, potentially, this team is better than the Newcastle side I took up to the Premier League," he wrote. "That side was very good but it didn't have the strength in depth, or score as many goals, or have an Ali Bernabia or an Eyal Berkovic. Peter Beardsley was our inspiration but this City team has so much more invention in other areas."

Palace's manager, Trevor Francis, would probably agree because his two previous visits to Maine Road this season, when he was in charge at Birmingham, had led to 3-0 and 6-0 defeats. Well, they say it always rains in Manchester.

It began to drizzle as far as Palace were concerned from the kick-off. Two corners were the prelude to a flowing move that culminated in Richard Dunne pulling his shot just wide, so it was hardly a shock when City took the lead after 10 minutes. It was a goal that owed a lot to Shaun Wright-Phillips' burgeoning confidence because there seemed little danger when he received the ball on the corner of the area. But a feint to the left and his quick feet gave him space, and his cross was so immaculate that any one of three home players could have headed it in from point-blank range at the far post. Horlock slipped in ahead of his colleagues to unwrap the gift.

With City a goal ahead, the home crowd expected the deluge to follow, but the rest of the first half passed by without a serious shot of note and it was the 50th minute before either goal was threatened again. Naturally, it was City who did the threatening, with Shaun Goater getting ahead of his marker but pushing his header from Stuart Pearce's cross wide.

Darren Huckerby, who darted through the centre of the Palace defence after 58 minutes only to pull his shot wide, should have gained a penalty five minutes later when Hayden Mullins pulled him back. The referee ignored the offence and, with it, the home hopes of the normal goalfest.

Indeed, Palace, whose play-off hopes are fading by the match, mounted a rally towards the end, but their first shot of note did not come until injury time when Mullins forced Carlo Nash into an acrobatic save. "We had the home fans whistling for time," Francis said, "so we had got them worried."