Catman

Crystal P v Southampton
Stern John earned battling Southampton an unlikely point and denied Crystal Palace a return to winning ways in a dour 1-1 Championship draw. The Trinidad & Tobago striker cancelled out James Scowcroft's 73rd-minute goal as Southampton earned a fifth successive draw on the road.

There was little quality on show from two teams with supposed designs on returning to the Premier League some time soon.

But the game finally came to life when Scowcroft struck, with Ben Watson twice hitting the woodwork for Palace before John snatched a draw for managerless Saints.

Transfer deadline day was not helpful to Southampton's already distant play-off aspirations, with key men Rudi Skacel and Grzegorz Rasiak both departing.

John Gorman and Jason Dodd remain in temporary charge of the visitors following George Burley's Scotland call, but what Saints would not give for a manager to transform their fortunes in the way Neil Warnock has with Palace.

Warnock, who has led the hosts from second-bottom to the top six in three months, named an unchanged side despite their 15-match unbeaten run coming to an end at Leicester.

For Saints, Youssef Safri had at least managed to hot-foot it back from the African Nations Cup to wear the captain's armband.

Saints passed up a golden opportunity after 10 minutes when Wayne Thomas' crossfield pass put Jason Euell one-on-one with Julian Speroni, only for the midfielder to send a weak header wide.

Chances were at a premium thereafter, with neither side able to hang onto the ball in an overcrowded midfield.

Scowcroft forced a comfortable save from Kelvin Davis with a 20-yarder while Andrew Surman and Adam Hammill tried their luck from long range for Saints, but neither found the target.

Bradley Wright-Philips should have done better after being teed up by John as the interval approached, but his tame shot wide summed up a dismal first half.

Things got little better immediately after the break, although John fired over from another Thomas centre and Matt Lawrence had to deal with a low Surman cross.

At the other end, Andrew Davies was on hand to clear Mark Hudson's header before Clinton Morrison turned on the edge of the area and curled a shot narrowly wide.

Warnock attempted to inject some life into the proceedings, throwing on Dougie Freedman and £600,000 new signing Neil Danns.

And the substitution paid dividends as Danns got to a high ball ahead of Darren Powell and found Scowcroft, who turned on the edge of the six-yard box and fired past Davis.

Watson then twice came agonisingly close to killing the game off, first with a curling cross-shot which hit a post after no-one got a touch, and then with a shot which cannoned off the crossbar.

And Palace were denied victory six minutes from time when the impressive Surman crossed from the left and John slid in to fire past the helpless Speroni.