JAMES WARD-PROWSE struck another dead-ball delight to take his place among the Premier League greats.
Ward-Prowse whipped home a wonderful free-kick to make it 11 goals from set-pieces in his top flight career, with only David Beckham, Thierry Henry and Gianfranco Zola scoring more.
It marks him out as the undisputed king of modern day free-kicks, above some of the bigger names playing at the glamour clubs.
But in the end both managers finished frustrated as neither Crystal Palace or Southampton did enough to earn three much-needed points to keep them clear of the battle at the bottom.
There is always an added spice when these two meet courtesy of an ongoing private battle between Ward-Prowse and Wilfried Zaha.
Two years ago the Palace forward was sent off after a dust-up between the pair, and only last season the Ivory Coast star escaped punishment having poked his opposite number in the eye.
So Zaha had his own extra motivation for producing the goods, and he wasted little time doing just that to open the scoring on two minutes.
Two Saints defenders stood off the danger man as he strode into the box from the left, and that was all the invitation he needed to let fly with a shot that beat Willy Caballero at the near post.
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7Palace should have doubled their advantage in the eighth minute when Saints failed to deal with a corner, but James Tomkins lacked conviction with his shot and Caballero was able to save.
At this stage the visitors were on the ropes, and midway through the opening half they were fortunate to escape again when Zaha’s low cross picked out Odsonne Edouard but the striker fluffed his lines and diverted the ball wide.
Then from nowhere the game changed on its head as Saints scored two goals in the space of four minutes – and this time it was Ward-Prowse striking back.
Will Hughes needlessly fouled Armando Broja 25-yards-out, and Ward-Prowse did what he does best, curling a superb free-kick into the top corner.
That 32nd minute leveller was followed four minutes later by a second.
Broja did the damage this time with a fierce low drive from long range after Conor Gallagher had lost possession in his own half.
From a position of dominance, Palace suddenly got ragged as they struggled to put any passes together with the crowd growing restless.
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It took until the 12th minute of the second half to create another opportunity as Jordan Ayew nodded Edouard in but he was twice denied by brave keeping from Caballero.
But in the 65th minute they did level, as Edouard was again denied by the Saints keeper only for Ayew to follow up and tuck the rebound home from a tight angle at the far post.
There was plenty of time left for either team to snatch all three points, but instead both toiled and had to settle for the draw that at least pulls them further away from the bottom three.
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