November 2 2008

Selhurst Park

We now have scored 17 goals, conceded 17, have 17 points and are 17th in the CCC table. Not so sweet 17, says Jamesey.

I couldn't really understand why the bloke on the sound system kept referring to "Halloween Saturday afternoon".

Not satisfied with inflicting his deafening children's music on our part of the ground, had he found another irritating stick to beat us with? (We genuinely have to communicate by lip-reading and sign language immediately before the game and at half-time when it would be nice to be able to have a civilised discussion on the first half.)

Halloween is the evening of October 31 not a November Saturday afternoon, surely? I later discovered that a Halloween theme had been selected for our home match with Sheffield Wednesday (Nov 1).

Well we certainly saw some ghoulish defending to concede a goal so early and, in the first half, the ghost of what appeared to be a formidable unit last season.

Despite the torrential rain which accompanied most of the game we played some much better football in the second period.

This is becoming quite a regular occurrence this season. Couldn't Neil Warnock employ a hypnotic specialist to fool the team into thinking the kick-off whistle is the beginning of the second half? If we had played two second halves in several matches we would have picked up a few points more than is currently the case.

Anyhow, grumbles aside, Ben Watson gratefully and skilfully converted his penalty and we shared the points with the Owls in a 1-1 draw.

The Sheffield side brought a big away presence to the game and, of course, Neil Warnock's Sheffield United connection drew some colourful chants featuring the W-word.

A few seasons ago in the Dowie era, I travelled to the Steel City to see us play Wednesday away at Hillsborough and returned highly impressed by the ground, if not the boring 0-0 result of the game.

It is becoming increasingly depressing to look around the dilapidated Main Stand with its tin roof, wooden seats and medieval toilets.

We have had, coming up, nine years of Simon Jordan's chairmanship and the best thing about Selhurst Park, the Holmesdale end, was the brainchild of Ron Noades. I desperately hope that Jordan soon finds a buyer who cares about the club and has a few bob to spend to make our ground into a 21st century football arena.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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