November 28 2007

Selhurst Park

Jamesey reflects on how the Warnock Effect is gathering momentum.

On a dank and dreary November Tuesday night (Nov 27), with free European football on the box, there was a strong motivation to turn up the central heating and stay indoors.

But over 13,000 (including a couple of hundred away supporter die-hards) made their way to Selhurst Park and the home fans were rewarded with a 2-1 victory over Preston North End.

Pretty, I have to admit, it wasn't. But "pretty" is not really on the agenda when you are in the thick of a relegation dogfight.

It used to be a commonly-held view that if the 11 members of a football team were talented enough, the manager was a mere peripheral figure.

Nowadays, of course, managers and chairman are often bigger names than many of their players.

Be that as it may, if you found a reasonably knowledgeable neutral football enthusiast and played him a video of the Preston game and one of the last games overseen by Peter Taylor, I am certain he would have no problem matching manager to game.

I was surprised how slowly the Warnock Effect developed as I expected a tough, no-nonsense operator like him to have an instant influence. That didn't happen but the Effect is certainly underway with a vengeance now.

With an injection of steel (Shaun Derry and Clint Hill), but basically the same bunch of players, Neil Warnock has produced grit, guts and fight into our team.

And for the first time in many a moon I am actually looking forward a game - the visit of West Bromwich Albion on Dec 1.

Bring on the Baggies.

And, at this moment in time, anyone who rudely refers to Neil Warnock as "Colin" needs to give some serious thought as to who really is the "Colin".

*On the train home after the game, I had to seriously reprimand a lad who wasn't playing some tinny racket on his mobile phone and, worse, wasn't resting his filthy trainers on the seat opposite.

Whatever is the youth of our nation coming to, displaying such non-conformity and eccentricity?

Email Jamesey with your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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