October 25 2009

Selhurst Park

Jamesey was sad that our nice little run ended at Leicester, but the Forest home game was a real cracker.

All good runs come to an end and after a five-game unbeaten spell we bit the dust in Leicester (Oct 20) with a 2-0 defeat at the Walkers Stadium.

So it was back to the drawing board on a mild Saturday afternoon (Oct 24) to see how we would do against Nottingham Forest who are currently enjoying a good run themselves.

Possibly overshadowing whatever was to come at that game was the story that broke in the Croydon Advertiser the previous day. According to that august organ, David Gold, who has just cashed in his interest in Birmingham City for £80million plus, is seriously considering buying you-know-who.

Mr Gold who is 72 lives fairly locally and is currently looking for a footballing interest. I can find little evidence that he would be a disaster for CPFC and apparently current owner Simon Jordan would consider him an acceptable buyer.

Mr Gold also has considerable experience and acumen in the football business and could bring in other investors to the club which would make a lot more financial sense than the current oligarch-with-a-ragged-arse style of ownership.

So let's fervently hope that something comes out of it although West Ham is allegedly another area of interest to Mr Gold. But the Hammers' massive debts would frighten even the most sanguine tycoon, one would think.

So perhaps a Gold finger could be on the buzzer at Selhurst and at last Simon could toddle off and get on with his other favoured "aspirations"?

To return to the Forest game itself, I feared we were in for an almighty thumping as Forest ran rings around us for the first 20 minutes. But we did settle down after that, much to the relief of Palace fans in the official 15,692 crowd, a sizeable chunk of whom were Forest supporters.

It was third time lucky for Darren Ambrose when his free kick went in just before half-time but David McGoldrick equalised not long after the start of the second period and that's the way it stayed.

Both teams had good chances to win the game and even my Great Aunt Florence could have scored the one that Victor Moses missed, one yard in front of an open goal. (Hope Auntie Flo doesn't read this because she might be offended and I would really miss my annual Xmas present of M&S gents' handkerchiefs and Brut after-shave).

I think most fair-minded Palace supporters would find the result a fair one.

Incidentally does anyone know whether David McGoldrick is the son of the mighty Eddie, one of our stalwarts in the late 80s and early 90s? Even the internet doesn't seem to provide an answer.

That tache was something else, Eddie...

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

In Depth Jamesey's Veteran View Index