A half-time "verbal" from Trevor Francis failed to prevent Crystal Palace from losing 1-0 to in-form Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday.

The Eagles put in a dire first-half performance and Francis was not a happy man, saying: "For the first time since I have been in charge of Palace, I laid into my players. At half-time I told them in no uncertain manner that I didn't like what I'd seen.

"We needed to put them under pressure and our response was excellent.

"On another day we might have got a result. If we had scored early after the break I think it would have been very different game."

The only goal of the game came five minutes before the break when Noel-Williams drilled a low shot from the edge of the box, after a flick-on from Micah Hyde, to leave an unsighted Alex Kolinko no chance.

Palace had a good 15 minute spell of pressure after half-time as Francis' roasting seemed to have worked.

Watford's Alec Chamberlain made good saves to deny close-range efforts from Dougie Freedman, Clinton Morrison and Kit Symons.

Francis added: "I'm still trying to assess players and at the same time trying to pick up points, but our results show that something is not quite right.

"We have worked hard in training to try and put the things right and, hopefully, the extra effort put in will start to show in our performances shortly."

Palace have shown an interest in signing Charlton defender Andy Todd. But new Birmingham boss Steve Bruce is also keen on the former Bolton man and wanted to sign him when he was Palace boss.

Todd has a knee injury and was suspended by Charlton after a training ground incident with Dean Kiely.

December 20, 2001 15:00