April 6 2010

Selhurst Park

...we are staying up. The Great Escape is looking more and more plausible. Jamesey reflects on a very satisfying Easter indeed.

Four games in nine days is a tough schedule for a team facing an uphill struggle for survival in the second division.

Our fixture at home against Cardiff City (Mar 27) was desperately disappointing.

There's no mileage in moaning about the ref but we certainly were dealt another plonker in the black. Cardiff's winning goal, of course, stemmed from a free-kick awarded for a Neil Danns hand ball.

Forgive my ignorance but I thought hand ball, like murder, had to be intentional? How can you honestly avoid hand ball when a spherical object is blasted at your manual extremities at point blank range and at half the speed of light?

In the end the best team lost 1-2 and it was beginning to look as though the classic syndrome, "nothing goes right for you when you are in trouble" was in force at Selhurst.

But matters were due to improve on the following Tuesday (Mar 30) with a 1-3 away win against Watford. Okay, we rode our luck but, for once, things went right for us and not for the Hornets.

In his Preston programme notes, Shaun Derry said that he offered his special thanks to Eagles supporters who travelled to Vicarage Road. "I have never seen support like that since I have been here," wrote Shaun. What a compliment to the away contingent and well deserved.

Easter Saturday (Apr 3) in Middlesbrough would probably be more of a challenge but we held out and gained a precious point with a 1-1 draw although, once more, our policy of defence to gain a point was the stuff of high drama and cardiac palpitations for this writer.

So the big question, as Easter Monday (Apr 5) dawned, was could we keep up this superb form and gain three points from Preston North End?

At first the answer looked like No when our defence went AWOL and the North Enders slotted in a well taken goal a few minutes into the game.

An excellent crowd of well over 16,000 (including a couple of hundred North Enders) roared on Palace and were rewarded with an equaliser just before half time.

And for once the whole ground were getting behind the team rather than just the Holmesdale and the "Arfur". Even the Main Stand were going ballistic and we were all in ecstasies after two more goals in the second half gave the Eagles a 3-1 win.

So seven points from our last three games - two of them away - lifts us out of the relegation zone and, with that miracle of sport co-incidences, sets us up for a fascinating home encounter with Queens Park Rangers on Saturday (Apr 10).

Our very recent ex-manager Neil Warnock travels across London with his side sitting only two points above us in the league table. A win for Palace on Saturday would ease our relegation fears yet more, but would drag the Hoops down into the mire.

What a prospect, eh?

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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