January 12 2015

Alan Pardew in characteristic position for his home managerial debut against Tottenham Hotspur

A crucial game in CPFC's season saw the visit of Tottenham Hotspur. Jamesey gives his view.

Well, here we went again. Since last August - Pulis, Millen, Warnock, Millen, and now Pardew. I intend no criticism of the board for this statement, it's just the way things have panned out.

Now let's hope for some stability and progress with a man most older supporters will already be familiar with as a CPFC player, as well as a top-flight manager.

When Alan Pardew walked down the touchline he was given a standing ovation from the Selhurst faithful and must surely have been delighted after four years of indifference developing into downright hostility cum hatred at Newcastle.

The 4-0 FA Cup win against Dover (Jan 4) was Alan's opening game and was, of course, only to be expected. But matches like that are never a foregone conclusion - being minnow-killers can sometimes be a tricky business.

Anyhow a 24,000-plus crowd almost filled Selhurst for an intriguing Premier League fixture (Jan 10) with on-form Tottenham. The kick-off was switched to 5:30 for the benefit of Sky's TV cameras and this supporter was pleased to see that the manager was sticking largely to the Dover game formation with Glenn Murray and Dwight Gayle up front rather than the lone figure of Wilfried Zaha, a fish out of water if ever there was one in that role.

The first half saw a somewhat disjointed Eagles performance and Spurs looked more like scoring although Murray could have netted after a clever ball from James McArthur (a valuable acquisition for the club) put him through with only keeper Hugo Lloris to beat. But the Tottenham custodian thwarted the shot and it was still 0-0 at the half-time whistle.

We weren't long into the second period when Spurs' Harry Kane ended the deadlock with a well taken goal which was his sixth in six fixtures for the north London club.

Eagles supporters could have been forgiven for worrying whether that goal might signal a period of opposition pressure and take the game beyond their reach.

During the first half, referee Anthony Taylor gave the impression that in his mindset he was officiating at a game between a cultured and skilful globally revered outfit and a bunch of south London thugs. The former were always given the benefit of the doubt while the latter didn't deserve much consideration at all.

However Mr Taylor redeemed himself to a degree with a penalty award to Joe Ledley after a Benjamin Stambouli foul in the area.

This was duly lashed in by Gayle and it was even stevens again.

The Eagles kept up their second half pressure and Zaha, who had taken the field with about quarter of an hour to go, provided Jason Puncheon with a pass that the Man of the Match converted to make it 2-1.

Despite some nervy final minutes that was the way it stayed and three priceless points elevated the Eagles out of the relegation zone to 15th in the table.

One Sunday newspaper report revealed that the first post-match text that the boss received was a congratulatory message from Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley. Sometimes, goodwill and decency shine through the nastiness and spite so prevalent in the game of football.

In his programme notes, Alan said: :My job is to get this team to produce performances that go above and beyond what people expect."

So far, so good.

Incidentally, sitting next to me in Block W of the Arthur was a happy six-strong family speaking a language which even my reasonably experienced ear couldn't place.

We struck up a conversation during which they revealed they were from Bulgaria and were avid Eagles supporters.

"Creestal Palace two, Spoors nil," said one of the gentlemen just before kick-off.

I laughed loudly at this prediction but in fact, he wasn't too far from the result. Clever Bulgar...

Today's results and scorers

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