February 27 2017

Benteke holds off a Boro defender as the Eagles attack the Holmesdale end

Would Middlesbrough at home be another "winnable game" lost? Happily No, as Jamesey reports.

Any Clapham omnibus traveller who thought the Selhurst crowd would be subdued after all the recent grief would have been totally wrong when Boro came to town (Feb 25).

When I took my perch in the Arthur Wait at 2.30pm, the stadium was already rocking.

In fact "rocking"would be an understatement. Perhaps "shaking", " exploding", "howling" or any other choice of a word describing extreme jubilation and vocal encouragement would be more appropriate.

If the travelling Boro support was adding its own few decibels, I certainly couldn't hear it above the almost deafening din.

Nevertheless, as we Eagles supporters know all too well, a vociferous racket doesn't necessarily win football matches so we were still hoping for a change of fortune.

I have gone on record in this column as saying that personally I have never been overfond of our manager, Sam Allardyce. But desperate circumstances need desperate measures.

Steve Parish was forced to seek a manager to keep us up in the Loadsamoulah League and "Viagra Sam" looked like just the man.

It seemed rather a gamble that hadn't paid off to start with but now that the manager's January additions are literally up and running, there is hope on the horizon. It's too early to get excited yet but the performance against the north-easterners was a vast improvement although Boro looked like one of the poorest teams we had seen at Selhurst all season, particularly in the first half.

Three of our new players started the game - Patrick van Aanholt, Luka Milivojevic and Mamadou Sakho - with Jeffrey Schlupp on the bench.

Patrick scored a cracker of a goal after half an hour, Luka did great job in the midfield and whenever there was danger, Mamadou was there to use his body, feet or head to counter it. You can hardly criticise those three for skill and effort.

Nevertheless there was plenty to criticise in the performance of the referee, Mr R Madley of Yorkshire.

All in all, this supporter has always gone along with the view that officiating mistakes even out over a game or even a season. The ref doesn't have the luxury of slow-motion analysis that pundits and viewers alike can draw upon.

After booking James McArthur for simulation for having his foot trodden on in the box and denying Wilfried Zaha a couple of sure-fire penalties, one has to wonder where Mr Madley is coming from.

The Referees' Policy and Performance Code has obviously ruled that short of breaking both of Wilf's legs or decapitating him, even a free kick, never mind a penalty, is out of the question.

Many are calling him the New Clattenburg, come to cast an evil eye on any performance involving Crystal Palace.

Anyway, after a blazing first period where a rejuvenated Yohan Cabaye looked more like his old self, and Wayne Hennessey seemed quietly confident between the posts, there was almost nothing to criticise and every player gave his all.

The second half was a little worrying.The team had presumably been instructed to sit back and proceed with caution but even so several times the Eagles could have added to their one-goal lead.

It was certainly a massive relief to hear the final whistle. Three points are three points whether the victory is 1-0 or 5-0 and it took Palace out of the bottom three although the Foxes could jump ahead in a Monday evening game.

I used the famous misquotation "Play it again, Sam" (supposedly in the classic '40s movie, "Casablanca") to top this article.

Our current manager had a 100 per cent win record in his extremely brief period as England boss and the scoreline was 1-0. If he can carry on repeating that in the next few games, his reward in the near future will be gratitude and admiration in SE25.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

In Depth Jamesey's Veteran View Index