Burchy’s Palace Blog Extract 9 11/11/11 Reality Check;

It has been a great season for Palace so far but at the start of November things have got a little tougher. A goalless draw with Reading was followed on November 1st by a dull and attritional goalless draw with Portsmouth and last Saturday we lost 2 – 0 away at Cardiff City for the first time in eight games. On a positive note though at half time in Wales when it was 0 – 0 Dougie’s boys had gone a club record of over ten hours without conceding a goal so it is not all bad, there are definite signs of improvements from last season with greater defensive resilience running through the side and that confidence been reflected by better results. Although it was certainly disappointing to lose to Cardiff, a defeat was always bound to come eventually and despite we have now not scored in three matches had we not lost it would have been over a month without conceding a goal.

After the luxurious surroundings of the Reading game it was back to the normality of the Arthur Waite stand for the Portsmouth match. To be fair Portsmouth played better and possibly deserved the win, but Palace fought doggedly and were running on empty after a busy run of games (only to get busier) and despite running on empty held on for a battling point. This was a game we would have probably lost last year or in recent seasons so it was good to notice the improvement. Indeed it was enjoyable to go to a match with my friend Phil who was between teaching jobs abroad and was in the UK for four days to witness two goalless draws and state; ‘not much has changed then’ the reality though is things are changing for the better both on and off the pitch.

Last Saturday (to the date of originally writing) I went to the Welsh capital for an away day at the Cardiff City Stadium. Although Palace lost it was an enjoyable day as I had not been to Cardiff’s new stadium and it was a very different experience from the older, less welcoming, somewhat backward experience of Ninian Park. For starters the new ground has disabled toilets – an improvement on the porter cabin loos of the old more antiquated yet strangely missed Ninian Park. The day itself was an interesting test of independence for my new wheelchair as I toured around Cardiff city centre with friends before the game. The match itself could have been different had we been more clinical in the first half, yet to be fair in the second half there was little we could do as both goals were fantastic finishes that changed the game. Indeed Freedman summed it up quite succinctly ‘undone by moments of brilliance, but equited themselves well as a team, also conducting themselves well for a young side.’
After the international break we travel to Leicester and then we have a massive local derby grudge game against Millwall and an exciting League Cup tie away at Old Trafford against Manchester United. In many respects the Millwall game is more important because in my memory I cannot remember the last time we beat Millscum and indeed last time we played at the Den we lost 3 – 0 and it saw the demise of George Burley and the return of club legend and saviour Dougie Freedman on a fulltime basis. It will be a great opportunity for the three Steve’s and 2010 alongside Freedman to show Palace’s exciting progress and by thrashing Millscum the excitement and satisfaction generated among us fans would be an early Christmas present to go with the famous victory over Brighton at the Ammex.

The Manchester United cup tie will be very enjoyable as I am overnighting in Salford Quays and credit to Utd for not charging disabled fans. It will be like a cup final because for fans like us who nearly lost our club completely eighteen months ago it really is a day out deserved by the whole club and the board considering the way the club is been run and the positive fashion in which the team are working hard and moving forward. Indeed a shock victory or even just a good performance will illustrate the progress being made and the stability of the whole operation behind the club, and this can only be recorded positively in the press and wider media. Besides we may get thrashed but a lot of good teams get hammered at Old Trafford but we have such a strong youth in the team that outcome is unlikely. We have shown we have earned our shot at the Champions as a club by quietly working hard so I say bring it on, besides should be fun! SB