Warnock rages as Bristol City rescue a point

alace looked as if they would hold on to revive their push for the play-offs after teenager Lee Hills struck a stunning half-volley on 61 minutes.

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And they appeared to have clinched victory when Julian Speroni made a double save to thwart Bradley Orr's 86th-minute penalty and follow-up.

But the Palace keeper was finally beaten with seconds remaining when Lee Johnson's corner was nodded in by McCombe from six yards in the fifth minute of added time.

Palace manager Warnock then launched into his latest tirade against a referee, accusing Richard Beeby of playing too much injury time and wrongly giving City a penalty.

He said: 'The referee was punching the air when they scored. You plan for the opposition and do not think about the referee. He played four minutes and 55 seconds and you have to ask yourself why he didn't blow after four minutes like he should have.

'I'm very disappointed. He wasn't consistent in his performance. My lads gave absolutely everything and did not deserve to give a goal away.

'It didn't look a penalty. There must be 500 tackles like that in a game but he gave a penalty.'

Despite his penalty heroics and vital saves in the first half, Speroni was subjected to Warnock's temper as he left the field.

The Palace manager added: 'I was having words with Julian afterwards because I don't think any of our team should shake the referee's hand. It had nothing to do with how Julian had played, he did very well.'

Despite salvaging a point when the cause looked lost, City manager Gary Johnson was disappointed his side had not managed to collect all three which would have sent the Bristol side top.

He said: 'I think it's a fair result but that doesn't make me any happier. At least we didn't give up and it keeps Palace away from us. We had to resort to long balls into the box and it finally paid off.'

Palace, who had earlier been content to soak up the home side's pressure, rattled City by going on the front foot early in the second half and Adriano Basso was required to make two saves to deny the visitors an opener.

City failed to clear Ben Watson's 48th-minute free-kick and Shefki Kuqi turned sharply at the back post to drill a shot that Basso blocked at the near post.

Watson also supplied the corner moments later which was met emphatically by Mark Hudson, but Basso acrobatically clawed the Palace skipper's header away.

Palace went ahead just after the hour. Watson teed up Hills on the edge of the area and the 17-year-old opened his Palace goalscoring account in style with a sweetly struck half-volley.

City almost equalised when Ivan Sproule's close-range effort was tipped over the crossbar by Speroni two minutes later and they were handed a lifeline when Danny Butterfield was judged to have fouled Darren Byfield, but Speroni saved Orr's spot-kick and attempt on the rebound.

However, City were not finished and when Johnson swung over a corner, McCombe rose highest.