March 25 2002

Crystal Palace

With just a few games to go and with Palace having a very slim chance of the play-offs, Sam Hesketh believes Trevor Francis has only one option and that is to go all out attack...

As we trundle into the final few games of the current season, we have the distinct feeling of failure which, considering last season's efforts seem slightly out of perspective.

But if you consider the good attacking players we have, it shouldn’t be working out this way.

As I have said in one of my posts on the message board, the thing Francis needs to do is go for broke in the final run of games, with nothing to lose, and I am sure this will gain the crowd’s respect, even if it doesn’t get the boys into the play-offs.

At the start of this season, we were ready for a season of mid-table football, especially after the nerve-wracking finale of the 2000/1 season, with the famous Stockport victory.

And yet Steve Bruce, for all the abuse he gets and deservedly so, had us playing great football, attacking at every chance, moving the ball around with sumptuous passing, the like of which hadn’t been seen at Palace for a long time and he got some deadly results.

Admittedly, our defence wasn’t brilliant, and as the goals against column shows, it was an area we did need to sort out, which Francis has done a good job of doing, bringing in Fleming and Symons.

However, it is on the forward players we should concentrate on, with a good choice of attacking options at our disposal, something which Francis seems oblivious to.

He claimed after the Portsmouth stalemate that playing with two wingers was a "bold move", but against a team who had come for the draw and who played with a lone striker, this bold move was nothing more than a charade.

On the wings we have the likes of Julian Gray, who at the start of the season was a revelation taking player on, whipping in some brilliant crosses and setting up a large amount of goals.

On the opposite side, we have the likes of Jamie Smith, who I rate as the best crosser in our team. And Tommy Black, who we all know has the skills to take on any defence in the division and has proved himself as a fantastic player even if he is only coming off the bench.

Playing these players isn’t just a "bold move", it’s a formation that, tried and tested, has worked for us, and catapulted us to the top of the league with that brilliant performance at Molineux earlier this year.

In the centre of midfield, Aki has been quiet since Francis took over and this seems to be due to Francis’ defensive ideals.

Playing Aki deeper rather than letting a true defensive midfielder, such as Jolly or Thomson do the hard work, thus allowing Riihilahti to push forward and make those amazing box-to-box runs that he did when we were walking over teams in the early part of the season.

Kirovski is another player who hasn’t had a real look in under the new manager, and though I am not his biggest fan, his contribution at home has allowed Clinton and Dougie, our best partnership since the Wright and Bright days, to bang the goals in left, right and centre.

So as we come into the final straight of the gruelling season, Trevor Francis must realise that harping on about our injury list, the majority of whom are defenders, isn’t going to make us feel better about capitulating to lesser teams and rolling over against the likes of Watford and Sheffield United.

He needs to put all his eggs into one basket, he needs to let us attack as we know we can do, whether he plays Clinton and Akinbiyi up front with Freedman in the hole, or all three up front with Jules and Tommy on the wing, or just two in attack with Jovan in behind them.

He must do something attacking instead of hoping to nick the odd goal here and there. I for one would rather see us going hell for leather and getting beaten 3-0 than see us jog our way around the pitch, lumping the ball forward and scraping a 0-0 draw, or letting in a goal in the last minute for a 1-0 defeat.

We need flair Mr Francis, we need attacking football – miracles can happen, we’ve done it before!