Palace 3 – 0 Derby County: - Terrific!!!

Palace extended their lead at the top of the Championship with this fantastic 3 – 0 victory. Goals from Glenn Murray and the Brazilian, Andre Moritz, who is rapidly becoming a Lombardo esque cult-hero figure in the Palace midfield. Indeed enigmatic midfielder Moritz is proving more than an able replacement for the previous midfield maestro at palace Darren Ambrose, now at Birmingham City. The pair will meet at St. Andrews on 15^th December. Moritz has now scored three goals in his last three consecutive appearances for Palace as we continue our surge to the top of the league table.

Wilf Zaha took the headlines prior to the match due to his six minute England cameo in Sweden last week. What a talent Zaha is. Right from the first time I saw him play against Leicester City under George Burley in troubled times. Through to his influential displays under Freedman over the last two years against Manchester United and recently Vs Wolves, he truly is a credit to himself and our club. What a fillet it is for Crystal Palace FC that as a Championship team the academy is again producing talent for the national side. Zaha follows in the path of players from Peter Taylor to Ian Wright as Crystal Palace again gets a player to national honours for England from below the top flight.

I share Ian Holloways hope it was not a political call up meant to pressurise Zaha because of his Ivorian roots. The media storm over Zaha’s call up shows what unfair pressure he is under at a young age to make a decision and is poor PR from Roy Hodgson and the FA. What is not in doubt is he is the best talent I have ever seen at Palace and deserves the recognition he is receiving. Hopefully he will be an England international for a long time to come.

On Saturday Ian Holloway showed what a settled talented side he has at his disposal and what an experienced tactician he is at this level. I had heard that the 1 – 2 away win at Peterborough last weekend was dominant. Yet I honestly cannot remember watching a performance like this weekends’ 3 – 0 win against Derby from Palace at Selhurst in all my time as a season ticket holder since 1998. There are simply no words to explain how a settled back four, pace from the wings on both sides, and creativity from the engine room in the middle of the park combined to allow Murray to run riot producing an emphatic 3 – 0 win.

Talented Derby teenager Will Hughes tested Julian Speroni once producing a great save. This is all I can remember Derby creating all game. To be fair at present no team in the Championship can live with Palace at this current level and that is why they are top of the Championship.

Ian Holloway has come to Crystal Palace with the club in a unique position in its history. We are playing in a style and fashion I have never seen before in the twenty two years I have being supporting the club since the age of eight. I cannot explain why or how we are playing in this fashion now. I will leave it to those more schooled and experienced in the analysis of Crystal Palace then me to explain why. All I can say is I feel privileged and honoured to be enjoying such football, with the likes of Zaha, Moritz, and Bolasie blowing me away every week.

If the club and its supporters have been on a journey together since 2010 saved the club in that fateful year, than perhaps what we are witnessing on the pitch now is the culmination of that journey. When I was honoured to receive the ‘Fan of the Year’ Award in 2010 I, like any Palace supporter could only have hoped and imagined what great steps the four co-owners have taken, and quite rapidly too to turn the clubs fortunes around. Could the culmination of the survival journey be Crystal Palace’s return to the Premier League? That is now a definite possibility, yet even if not massive credit should go to 2010 for stabilising the club. Rooting Palace back in its local community and at a competitively high level in the Championship in the process.

It took a mere twelve minutes for Murray to breakdown the Rams defences from a Bolasie corner with a header in front of nearly 16,500 at Selhurst on Saturday. From that point on domination met calm assurance as Palace destroyed their visitors to extend their lead over Cardiff City at the top of the division. On 58 minutes Derby continued to crumble as Moritz superbly smashed home a second for Palace off a Murray knockdown from a Parr clearance. A third goal came on 82 minutes as Murray picked up a brace slamming home a shot following a maizey run through the defence. The rout was complete. A tired Rams side had long since given up the ghost.

Palace travel to former boss’s Neil Warnock’s Leeds United on Saturday Afternoon. What a press conference that could be as Holloway and Warnock cross swords in South Yorkshire. It will be a tough week for palace. Hull City and another former boss in the much maligned Steve Bruce lie in wait on Tuesday. Before Palace face Brighton on the first day of advent. First Leeds United though and no doubt Delaney and Ramage will have to work hard at the centre of defence as Ellend Road will be buoyed by the prospect of GFH’s completed takeover and all the Arab riches it so promises.