Palace Vs Stoke: Eagles beat Stoke in Potteries Ding Dong

Goals from Wilfried Zaha and Glenn Murray following a finish from Diouf Meant that Palace look to have secured their place in the top flight having deserved their survival enjoying Premier League football for another campaign.

Indeed the Eagles look to have secured a top twelve finish to enable the Palace to secure Premier League safety for another year. Not a bad achievement considering Palace are perennial losers in the battle for top flight survival having only secured top flight survival once before in six previous attempts, so to achieve survival for three seasons in a row is quite an achievement.

I love football more than anything else but as I age and my interests broaden I am considering a sabbatical to Europe like the great writers of old to explore culture and write/record a travel blog. I will look to purchase a half season ticket for the second half of the 15/16 campaign. Yet as I consider costings in football and the inflated price of tickets for the regular fan it is nice to see, given my kiwi roots New Zealand doing so well as to get to a World Cup Final with a small population of four million people.

After victory against Stoke City we face a home match against glamorous money bags Manchester City on a Monday night under the lights at Selhurst Park in front of a live TV audience. Wing play from the likes of Zaha and Bolasie has brought entertainment a plenty to Selhurst Park and great success in a relatively short period of time.

Quite an achievement given our proud South London roots under the stewardship of Super Alan Pardew!  

Palace Leave Hoops in Mire!

Goals from a reinvigorated Wilf Zaha, McCarther, and a first ever Palace goal from defender Joel Ward almost secures the Eagles safety, while leaving the hoops in distinct danger of the drop. Palace had to be on form as QPR are a much tougher outfit in the post Warnock/ Redknapp era. New Boss Chris Ramsey has a difficult job steering the Rangers away from the relegation zone. Palace took the lead when Zaha scored his eighth Premier League goal in nine games, to ensure the opportunity of moving Crystal Palace clear into mid table and closer to safety then they have ever been before. Matt Phillips did score a consolation goal for the hoops that Alan Pardew described as the best goal ever scored at Selhurst Park as he wacked it in from thirty yards.

It was a mere consolation for QPR as Ramsey tries desperately to avoid the drop since they came up through the playoffs last season. A stark contrast to when they were the top London club in the Premier League in 1995. A marker to how far they have dropped under poor ownership of Briatore and Fernandez. Zaha’s ability as a footballer cannot be questioned, it is the fact he could not look after his affairs in Manchester very well due to his age, naivety, and lack of proper support from a mentor. As Ferguson’s last signing he buckled under the weight of expectation and let the bright lights of Manchester alongside big money buckle his focus. Yet now he is back in London he is on familiar ground and can be a very important cog in Palace’s Premier League future.

His efforts at Palace alongside those of Jonny Williams have often gone under the radar yet from his first goal against Leicester as a Warnock fledgling to his last of spell one on the 22^nd December 2012 he will understand his value as one of the best strikers Palace will ever receive because he made South London truly loud and Proud.

The next game for Palace sees them take on Stoke City which will be a difficult encounter because they are well drilled under Mark Hughes and their supporters always make Stoke a raucous place to visit. It should be fun though as a well-balanced side under Pardew goes into the last ten matches of the campaign looking for the points to secure survival.  

FA Cup Reflections!

So… as I watch the quarter final between Reading and Bradford City my thoughts turn to happy days a long time ago when I went to Bradford City back in 2004 when Bradford was in heavy financial difficulties and the top tier of their mega store was closed due to financial difficulties. It shows how far they have come in a short period of time to recover, get to a league cup final and then make a deserved run to an FA Cup Quarter Final and somehow continue their good form in the Cup. They really do deserve a hell of a lot of credit.

Reading too deserve much credit and respect for their achievements under Steve Clarke they deserve respect from learning from past mistakes under Russian Ownership to turn it around super quick  and recreate there success when they arrived in the premier league in the early 21^st century.

Make no mistakes I am an intense follower of Crystal Palace. But I also respect Reading FC massively. This is because they gave me hope to complete hope to complete a good education at a great school where I had excellent support from role models like my teacher Karen and friends like David and Andrew. Indeed another friend Stuart happened to work at reading fc and showed me a tour of the stadium and encouraged me massively to write my football blog since 2011. We have also worked positively on a radio blog called definitely certainly where he could practice his improvisation techniques of famous football celebrities such as his idle Brian Clough, Mick McCarthy, Martin Jol and Steve McClaren.

Sir John Madejski deserves massive credit and respect for the way he has regenerated East Reading and the Whitley Wood area that also needed a lot of work but with both the Stadium and hotel complex the infrastructure has certainly generated a hell of a lot of income for the football club. Indeed this result was clearly illustrated by the clubs rise to the Premier League under Steve Coppell. Currently they are returning to form under Steve Clarke a point made all the more clearer by an understated cup run to a quarter final replay against the a for mentioned Bradford City next week. The Mad Stad will be rocking.

Links between Palace and reading are close. In the history books Reading enjoyed their biggest ever win against Palace a 10 – 2 thrashing in the 1920’s. Yet in more modern times meetings have been a lot closer and I especially enjoyed Palace’s 6 – 1 humbling of the Royals in 1996 when I was able to rib my school mates following consecutive 6 – 1 victories with 12 different scorers against Reading and Southend in 1996. Both clubs are linked by the likes of Coppell, Solako, Mullins Leigertwood and Macanuff. Both are clear community clubs committed to youth development. In the days now when money controls football it is important not to forget the game is a microcosm of society and reflective of its problems not responsible for them. 

When one recalls Shankley from the Liverpool boot room stating football is not a matter of life or death, just more important than that it is easy to forget the darker shadows that cast the dark side of football like racism, bigotry and homophobia. I suppose it is easy to pontificate about Shankley’s premonition especially when you consider the dark days that especially dogged Liverpool in the 1970’s and 1980’s but for me having worked closely with the national football museum in the last 15 years on oral history projects I think his words sum up the dogged determination of all football fans but especially the working man to stand up for the belief in the game is passion spirit and escapism from the undoubted problems and wrong doings of everyday life.

Saints Keep Marching on

Southampton played a blinder on Tuesday night making sure of a good victory that was well deserved because they played very well for a change and life continues as normal for their top men like Saido Mane which was their first goal in six hours and twenty seven minutes as Pardew won his first five away matches but just could not cope with Southampton’s strongest attack because they knew the ability to keep going would help in the end because the striker from Senegal beat his man perfectly to set up a chip over Speroni to help the Saints after James Ward Prowse had his shot palmed back into play by Speroni.

Before this Palace had the majority of the play through the wonders of Wilfried Zaha speedy heroics meant that Palace were doing the best they could under extremely difficult circumstances. This happened almost by accident as the attack was quick, speedy wingers like Zaha and Bolasie tried very hard because they knew pace mattered and they could utilise the spare man in attack to pressurise Southampton’s defence. Indeed it was a close call but fortunately the team played well and did not deserve to lose.

Unfortunately we did not have luck on our side like we did at West Ham or Leicester City and Pardew lost to a former employee for the first time. The saints were just too good which meant the chances of Palace getting complete satisfaction from their performance were somewhat limited.

Palace’s next performance sees the visit of QPR to Selhurst Park. This London derby involves taking on a struggling side that looks destined for relegation. However they are yet to reach full potential under their new manager which makes them tough opponents for Pardew’s XI.