It was unforgivable that Mike Atherton seemed to join in the general hostility to Wallace

It was unforgivable that Mike Atherton seemed to join in the general hostility to Wallace. I hope the management spoke strong words to Headley overnight. He should have been told to pull himself together and get on with the job he was brought here to do. Thankfully, the evidence on the third morning suggested this might have happened. He was given five overs in which he collected the crucial scalp of Brian Lara and gave away only nine runs..

SO FAR, statisticians have failed to record the quickest goal conceded by a team under the stewardship of a caretaker-coach. When they eventually complete their research, Crystal Palace and Attilio Lombardo will be rightly up there. At 3pm yesterday, Lombardo's career as a coach, or head of team affairs as they are calling it in South London, began and 58 seconds later the honeymoon was over. All the hopes, aspirations and dreams which tend to accompany a new beginning - even one as bizarre as this - vanished, together with, it must be said, the Palace defence.

Headley's stupid reaction was to allow himself to get involved in a slanging match with Wallace.Headley was lucky to have the last word when Wallace, although a long way forward, was given out lbw. When he came back for his second spell, he again charged in mindlessly to Wallace who, with an uncomplicated disdain, kept driving him back over his head for four. On Friday, his thinking was as wild and uncontrolled as his bowling. He is a fast medium seamer whose greatest asset should be his control. He raced in as if he was a genuine fast bowler who wanted to teach the two new openers a lesson.Headley is not a genuine fast bowler; he never has been and never will be.