From The Sunday Telegraph:
'No matter how this return to the Premiership culminates - and for several months Crystal Palace have been earning themselves a fighter's chance of staying up - Iain Dowie and his players deserve nothing but praise. Down to 10 men for the last half hour, they held out in the face of a Manchester United onslaught to secure yet another point. No wonder it was raucously received.
Palace have been prospering at home and a fourth clean sheet in the past five matches here rewarded great determination by Dowie's entire Palace team as well as punishing United, and especially Ruud van Nistelrooy, for poor finishing. They mounted fierce pressure after the dismissal of Vassilis Lakis following two fouls in swift succession, but even the advent of Wayne Rooney could not win the match for them.
Rooney left the field bitterly complaining to the referee, Mark Clattenburg - the 19-year-old was not alone among United players in doing so - but at least no kung-fu kicks were aimed, so that was progress; we had been reminded that it was 10 years since Eric Cantona, having been sent off here, asked a taunting spectator to mind his manners.
Rooney, dubbed the new Cantona in the morning papers, spent most of the afternoon on the bench, Sir Alex Ferguson giving a first start in two months to Alan Smith on the right of the attack. Van Nistelrooy was alone up front, sharpening his fitness in preparation for the Champions League second leg against Milan at San Siro (winnable, despite the Italian club's 1-0 win at Old Trafford).
In these humbler surroundings, United took a while to get into their stride. They seemed taken aback by Palace's enterprise and survived a couple of potentially tricky situations before their passing game clicked into gear.'