March 9 2011

Crystal Palace

Palace managed to create a little more space between themselves and the bottom three with a 1-0 win over Cardiff City, reports Jamesey.

You certainly would never have thought that our Tuesday night (Mar 8) game against the Bluebirds was between Premier League aspirants and trapdoor candidates.

All in all, like our thrilling 3-3 draw with Reading (Feb 26), it was a thoroughly entertaining game of football with missed chances and drama in plenty.

In the end a botched Cardiff penalty and a scuffed goal from our midfielder with the unpronounceable name, Kagisho Digacoi (sounds more like a samurai warrior than a young man from the veldt) were the difference between the two sides and we stayed above the bottom three with a four-point cushion above the Scunnies who are showing a worrying surge of form lately.

An official crowd of 12,549 looked sparse and, as ever, one would have put the actual attendance at a few thousand less.

In the interests of reseach, I looked in at the Railway Telegraph, close by Fort Neef rail station, for a pre-game libation. As a lifelong lover of Youngs ales I was pleasantly surprised at the price of a pint of Special - only £2.90 and 40-50p cheaper than my usual Wandsworth venues. However the cheapness of the beer was negated by its undrinkability - brackish and ice-cold (the cardinal sin in real ale service).

I swiftly moved on to the Thomas Farley on the High Street where a large and noisy contingent of Bluebirds were celebrating what they hoped would be a further step to returning Cardiff to the top division where they once resided.

The IPA ale was at least drinkable but served in plastic containers (another unacceptable factor for this fussy quaffer). Presumably the management were expecting a glass-smashing riot although it was hard to see why.

One way or another it was not a night for the real ale connoisseur.

Our last two home performances have been full of encouragement and it is only our abysmal performances away that prevent it having been a very satisfactory season, given the traumas of administration.

Our 1-0 defeat at Burnley (Mar 5) was par for the course although views seemed to differ on our performance.

Some HOL members who actually watched the game thought that our team played well and it was only bad luck (as usual) that denied us a point at least.

I listened to the match on Palace Player and the two commentators tried their best to find some positives from the Eagles' efforts but ultimately thought that we were too timid and deserved what we got - nothing.

I am looking forward to a trip to Loftus Road on Saturday (Mar 12) but for various reasons will be sitting in Hoops territory. It will be interesting to see our away performance from a different perspective.

I had a lot of time for Colin (it's OK to disrespect him that now he is no longer our boss!) while he was at Selhurst but wouldn't it be a dream to turn the form-books upside down and come home from division leaders QPR with three points...

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

In Depth Jamesey's Veteran View Index