CRYSTAL PALACE ensured Ipswich’s poor start to the season at home continued when they punished a blunder by goalkeeper Richard Wright to escape with a point. Ipswich have four points from a possible 12 at Portman Road after losing just once on their own patch last season.

Jon Stead gave the home side the perfect start when he fired in after impressive work down the left flank by Jon Wal-t e r s b u t m o m e n t s l a t e r Wright’s fumble allowed Victor Moses to head home and claim a share of the spoils.

Palace manager Neil Warnock was delighted with his side’s display and said: “It was as good as we’ve produced this season. We needed a performance like that and it took a good team to make us play. I thought our tactics were good.

“We looked strong, we played some good counter-attacking football and it was a good match. It would have been cruel to lose but had we scored a second it would have made it a bit nervy for them.”

Warnock hailed new loan signing Craig Beattie and goal hero Moses. He added: “Craig made a big difference and gave us something to hang on to. As for Victor, we know what he can do. I left him out a couple of weeks ago and told him why, but since then he’s come back and played as though a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.”

Although Palace dominated possession in the early stages, Ipswich came closer to opening the scoring. Kevin Lisbie latched on to a Walters knockdown before laying off to Tommy Miller, who fired inches wide with the aid of a deflection off Clint Hill.

Ipswich didn’t have to wait much longer to break the deadlock. Walters outmuscled Danny Butterfield down the left flank before pulling the ball back towards the lurking David Norris on the penalty spot. He showed tremendous awareness in dummying for the unmarked Stead, who fired past Julian Speroni.

Their lead lasted little more than 60 seconds. A howler from Wright threw Palace a lifeline. The former England international flapped at an apparently harmless Ben Watson corner and Moses was on hand to head in from close range.

The Portman Road faithful grew frustrated in the second half as they watched their side toil against a Palace outfit that appeared happy to settle for a point as the game wore on.

Palace almost snatched it late on when Watson met Paul Ifill’s cross at the near post but he steered his effort wide at the near post.

Jim Magilton, Warnock’s Ipswich counterpart, had a message for his critics after the match. He was jeered with taunts of “You don’t know what you’re doing” after substituting striker Stead with little more than an hour of the match played and later admitted it was probably a mistake. “I’ve got to live with it, it’s part and parcel of the game, and I certainly do know what I’m doing,” the former Northern Ireland international said. “I can’t stop it and people pay good money to come and watch their football here. They are welcome to air their views and I know I can’t go through my managerial life without getting any criticism.

“I’m a big enough person to deal with it. I never took the job expecting to be free of criticism. We’ve made a stuttering start at home and, after picking up so many points here last season, teams will come here and make it difficult for us. Palace did just that and they probably deserved to finish with something from the game.

“After we scored it should have given us the confidence to go on and win the game but it didn’t transpire that way.

We conceded another poor goal and that cost us three points.”

IPSWICH:R Wright 5, Bruce 6, McAuley 6, Naylor 6, D Wright 6, Walters 7, Shumulikoski 6 (Campo 71min), Miller 6, Norris 7 (Garvan 57min), Lisbie 6, Stead 7 (Counago 62min)

CRYSTAL PALACE: Speroni 7, Butterfield 6, McCarthy 6, Fonte 6, Hill 7, Ifill 7 (Kuqi 68min), Watson 7, Derry 6, Carle 6, Moses 8, Beattie 5 (Scan-nell 75min)