A cold and
sunny autumn afternoon greeted Crystal Palace as they looked for their first
ever victory at Leicester’s King Power, formerly Walkers Stadium. This would
not be an easy assignment but roared on by a proud sell out away support the
Eagles were looking to stretch their unbeaten run to ten matches. Goalkeeper
Julian Speroni made his 250th career first team appearance.
Congratulations Jules an achievement to be truly proud of!
Speroni was
on good form early on saving well from the lively David Nugent who was supplied by
useful crosses from ex Fleetwood man James Vardy. It was Palace who had the
better of the early exchanges with Bolasie and Zaha combining well to feed the
lone strike man Murray to cause havoc with the Foxes backline. It was this combination
that allowed Jonathan Parr to get forward down the left and really test Leicester’s
shot stopper Kasper Schmeichel (son of former Manchester United keeper Peter).
Yannick Bolasie also went close with a shot from distance.
The
breakthrough came on 23 minutes to the delight of a packed away end. A dominant
start was rewarded from a set piece when a corner from the left was only parried
clear by Schmeichel and Leicester’s defence failed to get any distance on the
clearance. Palace defender Damien Delaney, his career enjoying a new lease of
life at Crystal Palace kept the ball down and on target to smash through a
crowd and give Palace the lead. 1 – 0 became 2 – 0 a mere five minutes later on
28 minutes when another central defender, Peter Ramage, got in on the act. An
identical set piece corner was met by Ramage’s unmarked head as he planted the
header firmly past the helpless Schmechiel. 2 – 0 and the Palace fans were in
raptures.
Given the
situation Palace fans deserve a massive amount of credit. Mimicked and mocked
by Leicester’s fans as they stole many of our favourite terrace songs and
chants. (Imitation is the greatest form of flattery after all!) ‘You’ve nicked
all our songs, you’ve nicked all our songs, and shall we write a song for you?’
rang around the away end. Humour was getting us through it and the most
important fact; we were taking Leicester’s 100% home record and stretching
our unbeaten run to ten games in the process.
At times
Palace lived dangerously Speroni made some great saves illustrating why he is
such a reliable stalwart between the posts. He now has an appearance record of
250 games equivalent to a quarter of a millennium of appearances. Owen Garvan
did well to clear another Nugent effort off the line from a corner with his
head. Yet throughout the lively Murray was a threat and Zaha again tormented the
Leicester defence, making reference to why he is valued so highly at Crystal
Palace and admired and prized by the rest of the country. The fantastic midfield
partnership between Mile Jedinak and KG Digkacoi gave steel to the defensive
line, keeping the door closed at the back whilst being the engine room for the
pace and creativity going forward.
The entire
team deserve credit and a massive pat on the back for the professionalism and
desire they have shown for the fans in the past week. At Barnsley and Leicester
there was no quarter given as they refused to use the situation to justify any
sort of excuses. I like a lot of supporters truly appreciate them all for that
fact. Despite a stoppage time consolation from Andy King for Leicester Palace
won 2 – 1. The result was greeted with delirium by a support that will always
be there because of the special club Crystal Palace is. Although hurting there
can be no doubt Dougie Freedman has played his part in making sure Crystal
Palace remains standing and remains standing with a fantastic legacy in place.
The job for
the next man is to continue the job by going in and just managing without
reference to supporters emotions because the right pragmatic approach now could
have unexpected but great results at the end of the season.
n.b Blackburn,
Ipswich and Peterborough United blog posts may be created late, outside the UK
or not at all. Blog returns as per usual for Derby County on 17th November.
Samuel
No comments:
Post a Comment