Campbell’s Leveler Leaves Toon in Soup!

A Second half equaliser on a Cold Selhurst night left points shared on what was a scrappy and unremarkable evening. Both teams deserved a point, but the pace was pedestrian from the start and could have been a testimonial for Alan Pardew who has managed both clubs seamlessly.

On a positive though the cross that Campbell met from Bolasie was positively World Class as he remains an enigma frustrating as he is brilliant and often unplayable.

Despite this though I found the game a struggle due to an onset of agoraphobia and fatigue due to depression. This was not helped by some of the idiots at the front of the Holmesdale who thought it would be funny to through a coin at Collocini who was lucky not to be seriously injured. This behaviour is totally unacceptable and the perpetrator should be banned from Selhurst for life and face criminal charges! Also the fact this happens more often than it should is a bad sign especially when you consider that blind supporters are considering going to national media consumer rights programme You and Yours to sort out the fact the club don’t want to do the simple task of installing a hearing loop for blind supporters. This is discrimination!

On a brighter note to make this post balanced there is a burning sense of pride in me to think how far we have come since the dark days of 2010 and despite a few issues that need ironing out are probably one of the best run and most stable clubs in the league because of the balance of expertise brought to the club by each of the four owners. This is probably to the envy of struggling clubs like Aston Villa or indeed Newcastle United.

Sometimes though pride comes before a fall and with Palace this is certainly the case. Yet for me this is not enough as loyalty is the most important thing in football but loyalty cuts both ways and I can no longer afford the fun and bonding of away days due to the excessive ticket costs mean normal fans are being priced out of the game which is sad as wonderful, kind, and hardworking supporters of whom David and little Pete London spring to mind as he was the youngest signature on the CVA Agreement during our administration period and deserve massive respect for the distances covered yet sadly even these become a minority voice as the Premier League is swept along by its cash value worldwide as a United Kingdom export to the detriment of the common man. Fans like little Pete will become all the more rare because of the battle between the powers of capitalism and the problem of footballs money men such as Tan, Abramovich and the Venky’s continue to destroy the sole of the game.

Yet my burning love of the Palace will never die and the payoff of money is that sky have cooked their goose one too many times and that makes the availability of worldwide computer feeds of matches makes them easily accessible which offers people the choice to support from afar more achievable when the mundane drudgery of everyday life gets too much and we all need to escape to sunnier climes and we can stay in touch with the game we all love by magic which I guess is why we love it so much anyhow. So what makes us all feel better than the magic of the FA Cup Vs Liverpool to send us all spinning down memory lane once again!

Add on: Best wishes to a friend and inspiration for loving the Eagles Graham Maskill as he recovers from a heart scare! (He may be a curmudgeon but he is my and Palace’s curmudgeon and I for one am not prepared for him to go anywhere yet. As you know banter is a great leveller get well soon buddy!!!)    

Lucky 13th Place in League for Pardew as disappointing Everton Loss replaced with Joy of Narrow Victory vs Relegation Rival!

So the comparison with the days of Coppell and Noades can start in Ernest as far as I am concerned as Logistics expert Steve Parish makes move for the man that can stabilise and secure a (Mark) Bright future for the club.

As an avid observer of Palace history from the early 1990’s to this part of the twenty first century it is a clever observation as both were shrewd businessmen who in their own way took risks with personal popularity given the restrictions upon them by economic circumstances to build towards a bottom up solution creating a much better and more secure and successful period for the club. This was relative to the chaos of the enjoyable but scary and unstable periods of Simon Jordan & Mark Goldberg. To be fair to both of the latter scatty and unpopular decision making led both to find hot water of Administration periods due to bad mistakes even if this was for totally different reasons. It is undeniable Simon Jordan brought great efforts in securing the future via youth academies which brought forward players such as Bostock, Moses and Routledge to try to create a better future for a family club, yet ultimately extreme anger followed because of his unforgivable jepardisation of the clubs through the involvement of the hedge fund Agilo.

Back to the events of the present day memories of the disappointing defeat to Everton was soon to fade to be replaced by a much more positive, attractive counter attacking away performance to the Foxes of Leicester City to narrowly secure a 0 – 1 win. Debutante Jordan Mutch anchored the midfield very well, but it was the enforced introduction of defender Hangeland due to an injury to Scott Dann that changed the game.

An excellent performance in anchoring the defence alongside Martin Kelly led to Hangeland setting up a winner by nodding a corner back from the far post to set up Joe Ledley for a back post headed winner to secure a narrow victory. The importance of the result was not lost on both sides as Palace gave themselves a nine point buffer on the bottom three  as Leicester City remain routed to the foot of the table.

Wednesday night sees the exciting prospect of Pardew taking on his old club Newcastle United under lights at Selhurst Park. It may also be an opportunity for Eagles fans to see deadline day signings Keishi Anderson, Shaola Ameobi against his former club and French defender Pape Soare. It is also worth noting we can watch Wilf Zaha permanently again at Selhurst Park having resigned him for six million pounds sterling, a nine million pound profit on the original fifteen million pound transfer fee we received for him from Manchester United. 

Burchy’s palace blog 2015: Return of the Pardew

So at long last Alan Pardew has returned to Crystal Palace with hopes of resurrecting an FA Cup run and perhaps even winning the tournament well loved by the entire nation. Now back at Crystal Palace, Pardew who has managed Reading, Southampton and West Ham and along the way learnt a process of management in which fun and professionalism has ensued. Palace fans still see him as a legend due to the goal which he scored in 1990 FA Cup Semi - final. Indeed having seen Steve Parish’s consortium take over the club in 2010 I thought he would be installed then as manager yet George Burley took the role due to his experience as Ipswich Manager instead.

 Indeed having not gelled as Newcastle boss Palace’s new top man had to return home to ensure his own sanity. This was a good decision as it was borne out by the run of form that saw four victories on the trot from Dover to Tottenham, Burnley and Southampton. The situation looked to fit like a glove with many possibilities open to the new man.  Indeed with the wing pace of Zaha and Bolasie and the attacking options of Chemakh and Gayle, Murray and Campbell it looks as though Pardew’s inspired people management skills can really bring a rosy future for the Eagles.  After his experience at Newcastle under the unpopular Mike Ashley he must now feel more loved than ever under the quartet of Steve Parish, Martin Long, Stephen Browett and Jeremy Hoskins and this could be the best long term managerial appointment since Steve Coppell and Ron Noades and the heady days of the early 90s with the Wright, Bright and Solako years and indeed Alan Pardew himself.

With the draw for the FA Cup 5^th Round having now been decided, and regular league games coming up Pardew will need his calm managerial head on for this busy period of the season.

The cup tie at home to Liverpool or Bolton means memories come flooding back of the heady days of the 1990’s with the magical juxtaposition of a 9 – 0 hammering at the hands of the reds followed by the stunning superlative of the 4 – 3 FA cup semi - final win to reach Wembley. So now all we can we say is good luck to Super Al as the memories of the past fade and the future looks bright.