Crystal Palace and Watford played out a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park as the Championship campaign got underway.
Opening fixture finishes goalless at Selhurst Park
Crystal Palace and Watford played out a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park as the Championship campaign got underway.
Last season's losing semi-finalists in the play-offs failed to force a breakthrough as their season began in mundane fashion.
Victor Moses, Palace's highly-rated teenage winger, should have broken the deadlock in the first half but instead missed when clear in front of goal.
Watford's John Eustace fired wide and Tamas Priskin had a weak penalty claim from Lawrence's challenge waved away before Palace got a sight of goal.
Moses showed why Neil Warnock is so keen to keep hold of him by running Lee Williamson ragged before blasting in a low shot which fizzed across Mart Poom's goal.
James Scowcroft was then teed up in the area by Tom Soares, but he planted his header over the crossbar.
Unmarked
Former Palace winger Jobi McAnuff should have fired Watford ahead on the half hour but his angled drive forced a fine diving save from Julian Speroni.
Scowcroft then headed the ball to the feet of Moses, who was unmarked on the penalty spot, but the youngster turned and skewed his shot inches wide.
The match livened up after the interval when Matthew Lawrence, who was having a running battle with Priskin all afternoon, was scythed down by Williamson in front of the dugout.
All 20 outfield players charged in - but after stewards and coaching staff had intervened, referee Mike Jones showed just yellow cards to Williamson and Palace skipper Shaun Derry.
Shortly afterwards Williamson's chip bounced off the top of Speroni's crossbar before Jon Harley was denied a debut goal by an offside flag.
At the other end Palace right-back Danny Butterfield had an opportunity to fire into an empty net from a tight angle, but his effort instead floated out for a throw-in - summing up both sides' fortunes in front of goal.
