April 13 2008

Victor Moses

The Eagles maintained their play-offs status with a
2-0 win over Scunthorpe Utd, reports Jamesey.

With only one change from our line-up against Stoke City last Monday - Butterfield for Lawrence - we played more of the same, with Victor Moses and Scott Sinclair patrolling the wings and Big Daddy Clinton Morrison taking the holding role in the middle.

First half goals from Tom Soares and Clinton won us the game but what was the point of Morrison discarding his shirt and collecting a mandatory booking?

And for most of the time it was extremely entertaining football to watch although maybe not quite as fluent as in the first half at the Britannia Stadium. In fact the Scunnies came back big time at the beginning of the second period.

Perhaps the Iron manager had reminded them at half-time that they were in a relegation scrap not a stroll in the park?

Anyhow, with two tough away games coming up, can we stay in the frame? I am sure Neil Warnock's battlers will give it their best shot and I will be travelling to Watford myself on Saturday to add my modest twopennoth behind the goal in the Vicarage Road Stand.

Moses seems to go from strength to strength. He laid on both goals and was a continual thorn in the Iron side on the left of the field.

He shows remarkable maturity for a 17-year-old and one has to ask whether he is a real star performer in the making. If that turns out to be so, we probably won't be able to keep him more than another couple of seasons before the big shots from the Lotsamoulah-ship start to sniff around.

The last superstar to emerge in Selhurst Park was Ian Wright although the circumstances were completely different.

Ian had had professional trials but been rejected and was spotted by a Palace scout playing parks football. He signed for us in 1985 and was just short of 22, older than quite a few of the current squad and of an age with Ben Watson and Soares who seem to have been around for years.

He was also quite slow to find his feet and it is interesting to remember that he was not all that popular with the crowd to start with, being erratic and unreliable on occasion.

However the arrival of Mark Bright in 1986 produced the goods and Ian and Mark went on to give us one of the finest striking partnerships ever at SE25.

Ian, of course, went to Highbury in 1991, continued being an England international and ended his career eventually as one of the biggest and most successful stars in the English game.

Will Victor follow in the same direction? He's certainly got several years start on Ian and does, of course, fill a totally different role in the team. We shall see.

It was heart-warming to see our fans applaud the relegated Scunthorpe players off the pitch at full time. It is refreshing to see sportsmanship and decency instead of malice and gloating.

We, of all teams, have been down that relegation road enough times and sympathy and good wishes were great to see.…

Email Jamesey with your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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