March 15 2015

On the ball... Wilfried Zaha runs at the QPR goal. He scored the first in Palace's 3-1 win

A blustery March day prevailed for QPR's visit to Selhurst Park. Jamesey was on parade.

It is almost exactly four years since I last saw Queens Park Rangers in a live game.

The venue was Loftus Road and at the time Rangers were flying high with realistic Premier Division hopes while the Eagles were facing a tough struggle to stay in the Championship.

On this most recent occasion (Mar 14) it was the Hoops who were the strugglers while CPFC form since the arrival of Alan Pardew is giving us a strong expectation of a third season among the elite.

Despite the match being shown live on lunchtime TV, a crowd of nearly 25,000 were in attendance and why, oh, why can't people sit in the seat plainly printed on their tickets?

These days most Selhurst games are pretty well sold out, so it must be obvious to the meanest intelligence that if you sit in a seat other than the designated one, it will probably have been bought by someone else who, as was the case in this game, will arrive and demand it, thus causing a considerable amount of faffing about, shifting, shuffling and inconvenience for us all.

I was surprised to see Eagles Old Boy Clint Hill captaining Rangers. He, along with Shaun Derry, was commandeered by Neil Warnock in 2007 to add some much needed steel to the Palace team and he stayed for three years.

He followed Colin to Shepherd's Bush and to be honest, this supporter always thought that Clint was a solid Championship player but I am surprised that he has kept his place in the rather more demanding Showmethemoulah League.

I was pleased to see that the manager had elected to try out the attacking trio that served us so well in the Championship - Glenn Murray spearheading two tricky wingers, Wilfried Zaha and Yannick Bolasie. They played an important role in our 3-1 win which distances the Eagles even more from the drop zone and well justified the boss's selection.

QPR were torn apart in the first period and they didn't appear to know how to cope with the Eagles attacking zeal and strong defensive work.

Wilf was outstanding on the right, terrorising the Hoops and earning his just reward by poking in a Yannick Bolasie cross after 21 minutes.

James McArthur added a second after 40 minutes and very shortly afterwards a lovely curling shot from Joel Ward made it three.

Palace three goals up at half time? We all looked at each other in disbelief. We were hoping for a victory but this was very heaven.

And to be honest the Hoops looked a poor team. They didn't appear to have much fight in them and players like the ageing Shaun Wright-Phillips and the indolent Adel Taarabt aren't the sort of blood and guts fighters you would really choose when you are fighting for your life.

In the second period Rangers did improve and at least made more of a battle out of the match. But when your supporters - admittedly with commendable gallows humour - are chanting "We're going down" matters don't look at all promising.

Rangers' Matt Phillips grabbed an impressive consolation goal with a 40-yard screamer in the 83rd minute but it was too little and too late by then. At first I thought the shot had caught Julian Speroni napping but watching the replay on MOTD, one had to admit that it was a terrific effort.

The TV pundits were positively drooling at the Phillips goal but to be fair they did give the Eagles credit where it was due and despite the array of talent based at Loftus Road, the Hoops' hopes look forlorn.

In my welcome column to Alan Pardew (Dec 30, '14), I wrote that if he managed to keep us in the elite league he might even become "Supa-Al" again as he once was after our heroic campaign to reach Wembley in 1990. That sentiment really was written in hope rather than any real expectation.

But a quarter of a century on, from my seat in Block W of the Arfur, what should I hear from the vociferous choir behind me - a half-time rendition of "Supa-Al, Supa-Al".

You never know, do you...

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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