October 15 2009

Crystal Palace

Our trips to the Welsh capital for Cardiff City have yielded plenty of points, writes Simon Pophale.

We first met Cardiff back in the 1930s and all of the matches between the 1931/32 and 1946/47 season were based in Division Three (South) and at Ninian Park, we held the upper hand with only three losses in the 10 matches that we played over this period.

We gained a very creditable point in Cardiff’s Championship winning season of 1946/47 with a 0-0 draw as the Welshman drew only six of their 42 matches that season, with 30 wins as they marched into Division Two.

We were trawling the lower divisions until our resurgence began with the creation of Division Four and our slow climb up the pyramid saw us crossing swords with the Bluebirds once again in the 1964/65 season.

The five meetings in the 1960s saw two wins for both teams and a draw, although in our promotion campaign of 1968/69, we achieved our best ever result at Ninian Park as we romped home to a 4-0 victory. This was not a poor Cardiff team either, as while we finished second, they managed a creditable fifth, but 15 losses told the tale of their failed promotion push.

With our promotion to the top flight, Cardiff and Palace often found themselves in different divisions. When we did find ourselves competing against each other again, one team found the other in resurgent mood.

Our Third Division fixture in 1975/76 season saw us take all three points at Ninian Park, but Cardiff would have the last laugh as they were promoted at the end of the season. We would have to wait another year.

As Terry Venables was creating the team which went on to achieve promotion to the top flight for only the second time, we met Cardiff back on our return to the Second Division. But in both the 1977/78 and 1978/79 seasons, we came back from Wales with a share of the spoils with a 2-2 draw each time.

The first half of the 1980s did not provide much cheer for Palace in general, with us nearly going bankrupt, the lowest gates seen at Selhurst and coupled with a whole collection of shattered dreams, matches in Cardiff were a bit of a boon.

Each time we improved our score line with a 1-0, then 2-0 and the in 1984/85 recorded a 3-0 victory. Cardiff were relegated at the end of that season and subsequently had a very barren period, dropping to the fourth division in successive seasons and at one point, finished in 90th spot. Meanwhile, we were riding high in the Steve Coppell years and this ensured that we did not trade blows with Cardiff again in the league, until the new millennium.

Cardiff's play-off victory in 2002/03 saw the matches resume in the Championship. We pulled off a tremendous victory in our promotion season a year later, with goals from Wayne Routledge and Andrew Johnson.

Since our return to the Championship, the results have not gone in our favour. Season 2005/06 saw a Michael Ricketts goal seal the points for the home side, while in 2006/07 as the year drew to a close, we battled hard for a point in a 0-0 draw.

In 2007/08, a Ben Watson penalty saw the points shared again. Last season we fell behind to a Michael Chopra penalty before Sean Scannell equalised. Cardiff stole all three points when Joe Ledley scored a half volley in the second half.

If there was ever a time to start a good new winning run against Cardiff, a new stadium is the time to do it.