thanks Tom. I got binned, with all the other players, after we lost a Se counties games heavily against Millwall. After the game we were told that Venables was leaving the club to go to QPR and taking his back room staff with him, including George Graham who was coaching us at the time. think only one or two were kept on...David Lyndsay was one, I remember,who went on to play a few first team games.And a lad called John Di Palmer who was rated.i ended up at Greenwich Borough when they sold wrighty for a set of shirts. Mick, the Greenwich manager ran a team in the London Kent and border premier division.
I played against a few players..Gary Stebbing...Iain Dowie...Stuart Robson..Paul Walsh..Paul Harding....Gordon Watson...who all played at various levels along the way... Good times to play football. My back was knackered even then!! I loved the Palace team of the late seventies and the ' team of the eighties' with Hillier, Canon, Nicholas, Murphy and the like! glad someone enjoyed my post. And thanks for your kind comments. All the best mate...still in pain with the back but recovering nicely..still reckon i could do a job if tekkers does not recover from injury soon!!

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Jump to the last 5 mins, from about 1 hour onwards.

Jim Cannon sounds like a right prick. Before my time so I have no loyalty, but f*** that guy. You can say what you like about younger generations being soft or whatever, but a bully is a bully in any era.

Wright was horrible, played against him several times.Goby, aggressive little s***e.Found it hard to sing any Wright songs, even at the 90's cup final.Gray not quite so bad and remember one of our lads doing him in a South East Counties Div 2 game in the early days. He had a reputation as a nasty piece of work even in 1980.Same team as Jimmy Carter before he ended up at Millwall.(nah, not the President before the smart arses come out in force)
Played with MAN Mountain Droy for a while at Dulwich Hamlet and he was a formidable man.He never rated Coppell,s man management ( although Coppell had just released him.)Billy Gilbert was a little older than me but destined for greatness, even at 16. He played alongside Andy Massey (who skippered Millwall) in our Riverside Team ( Lewisham), a couple of age groups above my own. My dear old dad (Rip) used to love watching Billy Gilbert from the Arthur, always loved a tackle did Billy. legend. Forgive my warble....I was lucky enough to play against or with a few of our players...sitting here in intense agony after spinal fusion so go gentle...esp on grammar!! up the Palace.....never leaves your veins