April 4 2010

Crystal Palace centenary

Preston and Palace have been regular opponents in the last 10 years although in the distant past they existed in different worlds, writes Simon Pophale.

It would be fair to say that Preston’s past is one of the most illustrious. Being the first team to; have won the League and the FA Cup in the same season, the first back to back League champions and the first “Invincibles” (going an entire season unbeaten) characterised their early history in the game. Deepdale is the longest continuously used ground in existence with this year being its 135th.

Preston did not grace the third tier until 1970, so despite regionalisation of Division Three being present through the early life of this Division, it cannot be accounted for both clubs not playing each other. It was only until we made Division Two in 1964, did we meet in any competition.

Between the years of 1964 and 1979 we played Preston on 10 occasions in the league and we had a decent record against them with seven wins, two draws and only one defeat, which came back in the 1968/69 season by 2-1. Furthermore, we kept eight clean sheets and conceded only three goals, while scoring 12.

Yet the last 10 seasons has seen us play the Lilywhites in nine of them at home in the Championship and the results have, in the League at least, been good at Selhurst. From the nine matches, we have lost just the one which was in the 2000/01 season by 2-0. Two draws and six wins puts us right in the ascendancy and along the way, there have been some notable wins:

13/04/2002: Palace 2-0 Preston

This was our last home game of the season and the Trevor Francis era was in full swing and with this being our third home game in keeping a clean sheet, things were looking up as goals from David Hopkin and Ade Akinbiyi sealed the points which ended Preston play-off hopes as they finished two places and six points above us in 8th.

28/12/2002: Palace 2-0 Preston

Eight months goes by and the mood at the club had changed decidedly against Trevor Francis. Yet, this victory brought us a run of five matches unbeaten and criticism curtailed during a fine spell which saw us topple Liverpool in the FA Cup.

This match was decided by two Tommy Black goals, one either side of half time as we were playing with confidence and could have racked up more by the final whistle, only wasteful finish spared Preston a defeat by a bigger margin.

The Liverpool match probably ranked, alongside the Brighton result earlier that season as Francis’ finest moments but we went into freefall after this and finished 14th, again two places below Preston and Francis paid for this with his job.

07/04/2007: Palace 3-0 Preston

If the Trevor Francis era can be defined by the drudgery of the quality of the football, then the reign of Peter Taylor can be characterised as one of frustration as we showed in glimpses of what we were capable of and this result, our biggest win over Preston in our history, was one of them.

Two goals from Shefki Kuqi, one of them an absolute belter as he volleyed home from 20 yards to put us 2-0 in front before half time and we could have had more, but we settled for three with a Leon Cort headed in the second half.

This Easter fixture could have been the springboard for us but defeat on the Monday, coupled with comments from Kuqi branding us, the Palace faithful as “the worst he has ever experienced” only added to the malaise that was starting to brew around the club. We again finished in mid-table (12th) while Preston had their promotion dreams shattered as they finished just one point outside the playoffs.

Last Time Out

2009 had not started well for us as we had failed to win a home league game since Boxing Day and we were sliding down the table. However, this result against Preston saw us briefly stem the tide with a 2-1 win.

Although, once again, we had to go behind first before we took control. Billy Jones put Preston in front on 29 minutes but we hit back in style; firstly through the on-loan Anthony Stokes who thundered in an equaliser off the post on 31 minutes and not 120 seconds after that, we took the lead when Neil Danns finished from close range.

It would be one of only two home wins in the 2008/09 season at home in 2009 as we finished a lowly 15th. Preston finished in 6th but lost out in the play-offs.

Another win is now vital for our survival bid.