August 25 2014

The Holmesdale put on a great show to start the season.

Jamesey wound his way down to Selhurst for the visit of West Ham, wondering who would be permanent CPFC manager by the time he got there. The answer was nobody and the result was a disappointing 1-3 defeat.

First, thanks to the well-wishers who have contacted me over my lack of contributions in the latter part of last season.

Unfortunately ill health has seriously affected my mobility and ability to get to games these days but I will soldier on when I can for now, hoping my thoughts on all matters red-and-blue still interest some HOL members after 13 years of bashing out the words...

Our first home game of the season is always a little bit special and I entered the portals of the Arfur on August 23 with great anticipation despite the managerial upheavals of recent weeks.

The shock departure of Tony Pulis and the withdrawals of former favourites Malky Mackay and Tim Sherwood still leave a vacancy, as I write, and although it is very early days as yet, a miraculous turn-around to match last season's seems unlikely. We will see.

Like the rest of Selhurst Park, the owners have provided me with a spanking new blue plastic seat. I had grown quite attached to my old wooden model but we must move with the times, I guess. Plastic or no, the leg room remains the same so I will still observe games in the classic Selhurst foetal crouch.

The game itself started briskly with the Eagles giving as good as they got but two Hammers goals in as many minutes after just over half an hour knocked much of the stuffing out of the home side. Marouane Chamakh pulled one back at the start of the second period with a top-class low shot.

Even so, Palace still struggled to make an impression and a third Hammers goal not long after the Moroccan cracker pretty well secured the points.

Even the high volume support from the Eagles supporters seemed subdued as the game progressed and from my position they were being outsung by the Hammers away choir. That wouldn't normally be surprising at a normal run-of-the-mill fixture but Palace support has been anything but normal in recent times whatever the score.

It was exciting to see Barry Bannan make a start and Jonny Williams made an impression coming on half way through the second half. I like watching both these clever, skilful, attacking midfielders although it did seem last season that their type of player didn't fit the Pulis blueprint. Still, one can hardly be critical of TP's tactics. The results spoke for themselves.

It was a great honour to have the excellent commentator Barry Davies back at Selhurst Park. Personally, I always rated his analytical and intelligent views far more than the quasi-hysterical rantings of the sheepskin-coated John Motson.

Barry was often overlooked in favour of Motson for the big games and perhaps he was somewhat too low-key for TV bosses and many football viewers alike. Nevertheless at 76 years old he can still do the business and it was a shame that his "Match of the Day" performance couldn't have included nicer things to say about the Eagles.

But on the day that wouldn't have been true and Barry Davies always told it as it was.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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