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WEST BROMWICH, England (AP) — Crystal Palace survived a troublesome journey to the game and a spate of last-minute injury absences to draw 0-0 at West Bromwich Albion in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Palace manager Roy Hodgson detailed his team's problematic buildup to the match after the final whistle, saying: "Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong."
He said a train journey that was supposed to take 75 minutes on Saturday ended up taking 5 1/2 hours because of a breakdown.
"Three (hours) of that was spent in a cold, black situation on the train with no lights, no toilet facilities, nothing at all," Hodgson said
Already with injuries in defense, Hodgson lost Scott Dann to an overnight illness and then goalkeeper Wayne Hennessy to an injury in the warm-up. Palace only had six substitutes at The Hawthorns.
"To be honest, for this game the omens couldn't have been any worse," Hodgson said. "But luckily the players put that behind them and that's a credit to them. We could have found excuses, we didn't need it."
Christian Benteke wasted Palace's best chance and the Eagles have now gone 10 straight away league games without scoring.
The point at least lifted Palace off the bottom of the standings but it remains in the relegation zone, three points and a place behind West Brom.
The pre-match focus was on West Brom manager Alan Pardew, who was taking charge of the team for the first time after his appointment on Wednesday.
This stalemate extended Albion's winless run to 13 games.
"If we work like that every week, I'll be pleased," Pardew said. "We lacked a bit around the box but in terms of effort, we were very good."
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