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We thought it had set us up for a comfortable afternoon, and potentially a big win, but in the end we had to settle for that solitary goal before enjoying the news that only two of the seven teams above us ahead of kick off had won.
The sat navs were out yesterday as Burnley fans sought directions for their home ground, so long is it since we had a home game. What has now become a regular figure of over 14,800 made it but it was the Palace fans who must not have bothered with any help on directions given the paltry number who snuggled into the corner of the cricket field stand.
Eddie Howe named the same starting eleven that had kicked off at Preston; the only changes coming on the bench where David Edgar and Brian Easton replaced injured strike duo Charlie Austin and Steven Thompson. Not for the first time this season it left Burnley with a very defensive looking subs bench.
For Palace; goalkeeper Julian Speroni, perhaps the best goalkeeper in the Championship, wasn't fit enough to start with Price coming in for his first Palace game following his move from Derby last summer.
Recent results against Palace suggested a draw. Nine of the seventeen league games between the two teams since our promotion in 2000 have ended all square with both teams having won twice at home and twice away.
Almost from the kick off Burnley showed their intent as Ross Wallace got the better of the Palace defence down our right, and what a feature of the first half that was, before hitting a shot wide of Price's goal.
But there was nothing Price could do soon after as Jay's powerfully struck shot flew past him and that, we all thought, had set things up very nicely for a big comfortable win.
Jay nearly had another soon after, only to see his header flash just wide of the post, and that was the pattern in a first half that we totally dominated without making our advantage count.
Wallace has come in for some heavy criticism from the fans since arriving from Preston but he tormented Palace's Dean Moxey who didn't seem to have a clue how to deal with him.
By half time you wondered just why Palace weren't out of sight. We might not have peppered their goal as we had done back in September down at Selhurst Park but we were head and shoulders th better team and should have been going into the interval with more than a one goal lead.
Football's a passionate game. It's of such importance to so many people. The half time interval at Burnley yesterday however put all that in perspective.
Firstly, Debbie Parkinson, wife of former Claret Gary, along with her daughter was accompanied by former Claret David Eyres onto the Turf Moor pitch. She got the warmest of receptions from the Burnley fans as they sent their support for Gary who remains in hospital with locked in syndrome.
Added to that was the appearance of former Palace and England player Geoff Thomas who won a tough battle with leukaemia. He was there as part of his fundraising for leukaemia research.
The battles of Parkinson and Thomas against illness is an inspiration but there was little inspiration in the second half of the game as the Clarets lost their way somewhat.
There was no real improvement from Palace who gave the ball away with an alarming regularity and the only time they really threatened to get back into it was via a series of free kicks from Darren Ambrose. One brought a brilliant save from Lee Grant and another went reasonably close.
Down at the Jimmy Mac end in the second half Lewis was largely untroubled and the game became very tedious. It slowed down to a pedestrian pace and there was very little at either end to excite the fans.
The problem was that at 1-0 it only took one opportunity the lead to be lost and that came with just over ten minutes of normal time remaining. Thankfully it was blazed over and we weren't to have another scare.
Defensively we did well in the second half but it was in stark contrast to the first half when the likes of Wallace, Dean Marney, Jack Cork and Rodriguez were running the show.
We all know that success is based on the number of points won and we all know that there is a time when points are won without being on top form. There is no doubt that over the ninety minutes we fully deserved to win the game and that was because of our first half performance.
That's four wins and a draw in the last five league games and that's just what was needed if we were to put any pressure on the top clubs. That pressure is being applied but we'll need to keep it going to get above some of those clubs.
A few weeks ago we had a remote chance of getting into the play offs; now I'd say we have a very decent chance of making them. A few more results like this and we'll find ourselves back in them, and that's what we need to do now.
The teams yesterday were;
Burnley: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Dean Marney, Ross Wallace (David Edgar 90+3), Chris Eagles (Graham Alexander 87), Jay Rodriguez, Chris Iwelumo (Wade Elliott 59). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Andre Bikey, Brian Easton, Marvin Bartley.
Crystal Palace: Lewis Price, Nathaniel Clyne, David Wright (Jermaine Easter 81), Patrick McCarthy, Dean Moxey, Darren Ambrose, Anthony Gardner, Kagisho Dikgacoi (Sean Scannell 69), Neil Danns, Steffen Iversen (Pablo Counago 69), James Vaughan. Subs not used: Julian Speroni, Claude Davis, Wilfred Zaha, Adam Barrett.
Yellow Cards: Neil Danns, Steffen Iversen.
Referee: Andy D'Urso (Billericay).
Attendance: 14,848.