November 1 2010

Halloween

While everyone prepared their witches and ghosts outfits for Halloween parties, Eagles fans endured a ghoulish afternoon at Selhurst during a 0-3 stuffing by Swansea City, reports Jamesey.

Well, we've been working towards it for a couple of months now, and at ten to five on Saturday we finally made it... bottom of Division 2.

Yes, I know the season has a long way to run yet and we are hard-hit by injuries and all the usual litany of excuses. I don't think CPFC 2010 are knee-jerk manager sackers like the mercifully departed Mr Jordan so George Burley will undoubtedly be around for the foreseeable future.

I think a friend of mine and an ultra-passionate Palace supporter summed up the feelings of many as we glumly discussed the game on the Selhurst-Victoria stopper on the way home.

For most of the previous few seasons, they were our lads, our team, our kids out there - Derry, Hill, Butterfield, Fonte, Moses, Lee, etc.

Now, she reflected, I look out at a load of strangers. I can't even recognise half of them and they play as though they don't recognise each other a lot of the time.

I must say, I had to agree with her and in the game we had just witnessed - apart from Adam Barrett who played superbly and oozed commitment and poor youngster, Wilfried Zaha, who chased moonbeams for most of the game - the red-and-blue boys played with little conviction or clue in front of a crowd of 16,223.

On the subject of our Wilf, do teenagers grow several inches and put on a few stones in a couple of months? I hardly recognised him when he was warming up. He seemed to have expanded into a much larger version of himself. Quite odd.

Anyhow, for now we are stuck with loans and kids for the main part and let's just hope that some of the management skills and expertise that George Burley has ably demonstrated in the past can weld our raggedy squad into a cohesive force to claw our way back up the table.

Incidentally, I should be used to it by now but I almost had to chuckle at the way the media appear to have de-Palaced Malcolm Allison's career. It's been all Man City, Man City, Man City.

I am well used to Ian Wright and Kenny Sansom always being ex-Gunners (never ex-Eagles), Nigel Martyn always being a former Toffee. Well, the list could go on.

Even Big Mal's own family seemed reluctant to admit that he had managed Crystal Palace, with great flair although little success on the field, apart from a brilliant FA Cup run.

Malcolm will always be remembered in SE25 as the creator of the "Eagles" and the man who reinvented us in red and blue. He always carried an aura of the Fedora. His nocturnal habitat was often the Playboy Club in Park Lane and you could never really think of him without accompanying images of cigars, champagne and glamorous girls.

Big Mal always brought a smile to our faces and, by George, we could use a few of those now.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

In Depth Jamesey's Veteran View Index