Alan Pardew's first match in charge of West Brom ends in goalless draw against former club Crystal Palace

West Bromwich Albion 0 Crystal Palace 0: The home side took 20 shots on goal and enjoyed more possession but could not breakdown Palace, who move up to 18th in the table

West Brom held Crystal Palace to a point (Getty)

Alan Pardew and Roy Hodgson may have switched dug-outs and seen a game from a diferent vantage point but they were watching the same old script.

Albion's winless run is now a worrying 13 matches whilst Palace became the first Premier League side to clock up ten away games without a Premier League goal.

Albion 'keeper Ben Foster did his best to change all of that in an instant barely 18 minutes in, although he quickly made amends with a couple of fine saves.

Both managers will have seen enough to think they can get out of trouble, but trouble is exactly where they remain, and probably spelled with a capital 't'.

Albion's fans had waited a few minutes before the first Pardew chant arose from the Smethwick End.

Pardew's arrival had been announced over the tannoy but there was no fanfare, not even a wave.

Within seconds of welcoming Pardew Albion's faithful were chanting for Hodgson, their former manager on his first return to a club he had served so well before England came begging.

With Wayne Hennessey injured in the warm-up and having to be replaced by Julian Speroni, the visitors were left with just five substitutes. They needed none of them, at least for 87 minutes, anyhow.

And Speroni was excellent, making a couple of fine saves of his own, although Jay Rodriguez should have buried one particular chance when he was clean through.

Pardew very nearly witnessed a dream start with Jonny Evans' ball flicked into Kieran Gibbs' path by youngster Sam Field. Gibbs sent over a delicious low cross that fell invitingly for Hal Robson-Kanu but, arriving into the six yard box off balance he somehow spooned over the crossbar.

Hodgson and Pardew shake hands before the match (Getty)

Albion's impressive start wilted and the visitors, chasing that elusive away goal, almost got their wish.

The very first Palace move of note was indeed a good one, sweeping across the pitch before Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend exchanged passes. Townsend's neat pass saw Zaha burst past Allan Nyom and fire into the side-netting with the aid of Ben Foster's slight gloved touch.

At the other end Barry's corner was headed wide at the far post by an unmarked Ahmed Hegazi who should have done far better.

Then came the moment that will have had Roy Hodgson fuming on the sideles.

Benteke was unable to break the deadlock (Getty)

Foster delivered a howler of mammoth proportions when, faced with hoofing Nyom's backpass straigh up the field he instead opted to cut inside Zaha, of all people. Foster stumbled and fell and as he tumbled flicked out an arm to divert the ball away from the Palace man who dived to the floor seeking a penalty-kick.

At the least Palace should have had a free-kick for the handling of a backpass. They got nothing.

Back came Albion with Jay Rodriguez cutting in from the left, only to see his fierce shot blocked by Martin Kelly with Speroni fortunate to pounce on the loose ball.

Barry tried to take the entire Palace team on after robbing Christian Benteke of possession on the edge of his own box, but having made excellent ground he ran into a Palace wall. Zaha escaped and let fly with a cracker from 25 yards that spooned over the crossbar off Jonny Evans' calf.

Zaha howled for another penalty when he fell under Ahmed Hegazi's presence in trying to round the big Egyptian but there was precious little in it.

Both sides struggled to create chances (Getty)

Albion were hit by the loss of the hugely influential Barry on the half-hour, trudging off the park shaking his head and replaced by the Argentine Claudio Yacob.

The game settled down after the fantic end-to-end opening 20 minutes with Robson-Kanu fizzing a shot wide from outside the area after receiving Nyom's throw.

Then with half-time almost upon them, Palace upped a couple of gears and twice in the matter of a minute Benteke almost broke his lengthy goal drought.

First he popped the ball between Jonny Evans' legs inside the Albion box, skirted Kieran Gibbs' weak sliding challenge and found himself with only Foster to beat. Foster redeemed himself from his earlier error by blocking well with his legs after racing off his line.

His second chance was far less forgiveable as Benteke really should have burst the net with a free header from the resultant corner but mis-timed his effort when completely unmarked.

Quite how Albion could allow Palace's man mountain a free run at a corner from six yards is probably what ultimately cost Tony Pulis his job but a grateful Foster was able to gather untroubled.

Benteke, in looking to avoid his longest run without a goal, stretching back eleven games to April, looked sheepish to say the least.

Albion began the second half brightly with teenager Sam Field seeing a shot blocked by Joel Ward as he looked for a replica of his first goal for the club, against Newcastle in midweek.

Rodriguez was denied by a fine Speroni save after bursting past Mamadou Sakho straight through on goal. Speroni did wonderfully well to claw away a fierce shot before Robson-Kanu fired horribly wide from the rebound.

Jake Livermore received the game's first card on 65 minutes, a little harshly so, for a slightly late clash into Luka Milivojevic.

Field's neat pass put Robson-Kanu clean through on goal with Speroni again pulling off a fine low save.

It proved to be the Welshman's final piece of the action as he made way for James McClean.

Joel Ward was booked for a rugby tackle on Rodriguez as Albion looked for a quick counter after Palace had gone close with a ball into the box.

Salamon Rondon was a whisker away from glory with a late header but in the end a point-apiece was probably about right.