Having said that, the summer signing from Bristol City did give away possession that led to the Eagles’ 28th minute goal, allowing a cross to be put in from the right and Barnett stretching to get a head to it, only for it to fall kindly to Freddy Sears who hit a miscued shot across the face of goal where the alert Darren Ambrose popped up to convert for his 11th, and probably his easiest, of the season.
However, McIndoe made up for the lapse by taking on and beating his full-back – serial pushing, shoving and shirt tugging Danny Butterfield – before whipping in a terrific cross which Leon Best rose to meet, sending a powerful and perfectly directed header into the back of the net to get City back on level terms a minute into the second half.
The goal extended the Irishman’s impressive tally to eight in another impressive showing that reinforced his importance to the side.
It was good to see Bell also taking on his full-back as the wide men mixed it up by doubling up on set pieces and sending in balls from both sides.
City went close from two or three free kicks that were extremely uncomfortable for Palace to deal with in an improved second half performance which maybe just lacked a bit of luck in front of goal in difficult wet and squally conditions that made for an often scrappy yet still absorbing game.
The dreadfully pedantic referee Jarnail Singh played a heavy part in the stop-start side of it and after booking five players he failed to show a yellow card for the one offence that really warranted one when defender Jose Fonte took out Clinton Morrison, having already gone in the book for dissent.
The visitors, meanwhile, had the better of the first half when the returning Keiren Westwood was called upon to deny an early chance from Sears before Aron Gunnarsson almost put the rebound into his own net.
