Travelling travails

January 18 2013

The Britannia Stadium

Jamesey reflects on the New Year so far and passes on some views on the Stoke City Cup replay.

It was certainly a great way to start 2013, with that spirited 3-1 defeat of Wolves (Jan 1).

Our 0-0 Cup draw at Selhurst (Jan 5) wasn't half bad either considering that the Potters are a fairly strong top division side. However looking at Stoke's record at Fortress Britannia, the replay was always going to be a tough nut to crack.

I didn't travel to Burnley (Jan 12) but listened to the game on Palace Player.

It sounded as though we gave a good account of ourselves and subsequent posts from HOL members who travelled up to Turf Moor appeared to confirm that view.

However the Curse of the Late Goal Concession struck again and we lost the fixture 1-0. It is becoming quite a distressing habit this season and we can only hope that Ian Holloway can make our defence more watertight for the whole 90 minutes.

I am afraid that our midweek replay against Stoke City (Jan 15) was not on the menu for this correspondent but I pass on the report (below) from my old mate, Peter, whose dedication and willingness to travel far and wide put me to shame these days.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me say that I have never left a football stadium, where Palace lost an away game 4-1, being so satisfied and proud of our boys' performance, writes Peter. With one exception, all 13 players who wore a Palace shirt last night worked their socks off and never gave up until the match ended.

The one exception is Jermaine Easter (number 14) who is a liability. As you will see he not only missed a first-half penalty but had a great chance to win the game 1-2 in the closing minutes of normal time. I fail to understand what our manager sees in him.

Having said that, we will never know what would have happened if we had taken a 1-0 lead but as Stoke were so poor I think we might have increased our lead and won the replay.

The atmosphere in the Britannia Stadium was like a library ("where's your famous atmosphere?") and the Potters' fans were ony audible when Stoke were winning 2-1

OK here we go:-

Kick-off - nice to see Matthew Parsons (who was bright at left back) and Hiram Boateng on from the start

5 minutes - Aaron Wilbraham had a great chance but put his header over the bar

25 - Palace force their first corner

33 - Wilfried Zaha earned a penalty (you will have noted I made no comment about his earlier booking for diving) and all the Palace fans were in disbelief when the ball was handed by Wilbraham to Easter. Even though his penalty kick was on target - towards the bottom right corner - it was weak and Thomas Sorensen pushed it on to the post. We knew we might regret that miss

45 - there were 2 minutes added on and the score was 0-0 at half-time

47 - Palace were attacking the South Stand where their fans were and Lewis Price made a great save at the other end

67 - Cameron Jerome hit the post

68 - Kenwyne Jones scored with a header that Price appeared to drop

76 - another Price save (I think it should be added here and not later that Price had a good game and the two late goals in the second period of extra time resulted from Palace pushing forward and leaving Lewis exposed. On a 1 on 1 basis he did very well and prevented Cameron Jerome adding to the scoreline)

84 - Jonathan Williams made a mazy run across Stoke's penalty area and won our second penalty. Don't panic, Glenn Murray is going to take it. Straight down Sorensen's throat, roof of the net, his 23rd goal, 1-1. Stoke boss Tony Pulis pacing up and down in his technical (wrong description at the Britannia) area. Palace fans feeling confident

90 - 4 minutes added on and 1-1 at full time

1st period of extra time

94 - Peter Ramage had dealt with Matthew Etherington all night but on this one occasion he got clear and crossed deep for Jonathan Walters to head in at the far post (in hindsight maybe the Palace chants of "Walters, Walters give us a goal" and "Chelsea, Chelsea's number one" backfired - see 109 below)

105 - it ended 2-1

2nd period of extra time

109 - Walters' second goal from a breakaway for 3-1 (Palace fans chanting "we're going to win 4-3")

111 - as mentioned before Price saved from Jerome when he was 1 on 1 with our goalie

119 - from a long punt upfield Jerome raced away to make it 4-1

120 - Palace never gave up and it was a privilege to be there; it is why I try and attend as many away matches as possible. My next will be Sheffield Wednesday on February 23.

I don't normally give scores out of 10 but this time I think our boys deserve it:

Lewis Price - 7

Peter Ramage - 7

Damien Delaney - 7

Danny Gabbidon - 6 (sub Glenn Murray 8)

Matthew Parsons - 7

Wilfried Zaha - 7 (sub Yannick Bolasie 7)

Mile Jedinak - 10 MoM (the guy is immense and of Premier League quality judging by Stoke's "stars")

Hiram Boateng - 7 (sub Andre Moritz 7)

Jonathan Williams - 8

Jermaine Easter - 3

Aaron Wilbraham - 7