January 2 2013

Andre Moritz about to take the free kick leading to the Eagles' opening goal

Jamesey was distinctly under the moon after the Forest draw but cheered up greatly after Wolves came a-prowling.

The irony of it was that most of us would have seen an away draw at the City Ground as a very reasonable result. But when you are leading by two goals to one and a memorable victory looks within your grasp, to concede in stoppage time is just plain careless, especially when giiving away late goals appears to be becoming an excruciating habit.

But that, of course, is what happened and our 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest (Dec 29) meant two points out of nine after the third of our four-strong quartet of festive season fixtures.

That result left us fourth in the league table. Was our strong push for automatic promotion becoming a distant and fading dream?

New Year's Day would answer a few questions when we entertained Wolverhampton Wanderers, a club with an illustrious past but now struggling in the lower reaches of the Championship.

Anyhow, the first day of 2013 dawned fresh and sunny and by 2pm even the unappetising "Kebab" establishment had a long queue along the pavement. I would never have put its predecessor, the sadly missed Lap Hing Chinese chippie, exactly in the Michelin Star category but it certainly seems like it now.

Sure enough, a crowd of 17,453 made a fair stab at filling Selhurst Park and that figure included about 1,000 Wolves supporters.

The match started in a mediocre manner with neither side making much of an impression and the first real incident was when Julian Speroni's crossbar was rattled by a fierce Wolves shot.

This seemed to act as a wake-up call for Palace and the Eagles started to show some of the calibre which has taken us to the top echelons of the second tier this season.

Mile Jedinak bossed the midfield and Wilfried Zaha, despite the usual rough treatment which unfortunately he must expect these days, was usually in the thick of it.

After half an hour a foul on Wilf led to a free kick. Andre Moritz carefully placed the ball and curled it, Brazilian banana style, into the roof of the Wolves net. We gasped in amazement...we are accustomed to free kicks pinging harmlessly into the defensive wall in SE25.

After that it was all Palace and a few minutes later another nice return pass from Wilf was struck by Yannick Bolasie under the keeper and into the net. Two-nil, thank-you very much.

My only complaint about the first half was the sun which, at this time of year in the Arfur, blazes directly into your eyes.

I had forgotten about that since my first spell in the Arfur in the '70s and only now remembered what a nuisance our solar system's star can be. The planets haven't changed much in a few decades but I really think Steve Parish and the board should send a strongly worded protest to the Celestial Controller.

Even better was to come in the second period and barely before the shrill peep of the ref's whistle had died away, Andre Moritz won himself a free kick in front of the Holmesdale and did the same thing again. Bingo, a double Brazilian banana.

Many of us were wondering if we were in for a goal feast now. Wolves did look like a poor side although a non-expert like me couldn't really decide whether the rampant Eagles were making them look more inept than was the case.

Be that as it may, I would be surprised, after our recent throwaway performances, whether many Palace fans could not be worried when Wolves' Sylvan Ebanks-Blake banged one in with a quarter of an hour to go.

But there were to be no repeat mistakes and a 3-1 victory was actually quite flattering to Wolves.

So as I write we have climbed a place up the table, lying nicely behind Hull and Cardiff although the gap the Bluebirds are opening up indicates that the fight for automatic promotion might realistically be for the second spot.

I have bought my seat (a very reasonable £10) for our Third Round FA Cup fixture against Stoke City this coming Saturday (Jan 5).

Bearing in mind the decline in interest in the FA Cup, it will be interesting to see how many bums will be on seats for this match. But it will be even more interesting to see how we perform against the Potters, currently a mid-table team in the Oodles-o-Boodle League...

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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