April 24 2005

Iain Dowie

Just when it seemed like Ian Dowie was losing his famous magical touch, his Crystal Palace side put in one of the performances of the season on Saturday to climb out of the relegation zone, writes Ed Aarons.

Fans have notoriously short memories in football, and the murmurs of discontent were already beginning to seep in amongst some of the Palace faithful as we had to watch all our relegation rivals pick up much-needed points in recent weeks.

But the1-0 victory over Liverpool proved one thing: this team will not give up on Premiership survival until the last ball has been kicked.

There was a tense atmosphere around Selhurst Park as Rafa Benitez’ Champions League semi-finalists rolled into town.

Three points was a bare minimum requirement to keep the Eagles fighting for their lives and 26,000 supporters knew it.

The game began with a typically committed display from Michael Hughes and co, with Milan Baros on the receiving end of some hefty challenges that must have caused him to break at least one finger-nail.

Liverpool knew they were in a game from the off and they were forced to forget any lingering thoughts of Wednesday’s showdown with Chelsea as Tony Popovic’s header was tipped over by Jerzty Dudek.

The former captain, recalled to the heart of the defence after being dropped earlier in the season, looked a shadow of his former self with an impressively composed first-half display that helped to settle the nerves of not only the players but the capacity crowd.

Right on cue, undoubtedly Palace’s two most proficient attacking threats linked up with clinical effect, Routledge’s cross-cum-shot being diverted expertly past Dudek by that man Andrew Johnson.

It was exactly was had been required – whereas last week’s disappointing game against Norwich had seen the Eagles go down 3-1 after taking an early lead, the entire stadium seemed to grow in confidence after the goal. It certainly woke everyone from their slumber in the Holmesdale End, and the singing did not stop until the last from that point.

By contrast, Liverpool’s sizeable travelling support, in good voice up until that point, struggled to raise a song for the rest of the match – and they certainly didn’t like the one about ‘Chelsea’s number 8’ Steven Gerrard.

Their Euro 2004 Golden Boot winner Baros was almost immediately replaced by Darren Potter, but unlike his namesake Harry, he was unable to work any magic.

Instead, the second-half was a display of how much confidence can transform a side. Soares, Routledge and Johnson began to link up excellently on the counter-attack as Liverpool were driven on by Gerrard, with the former contriving to miss from just six yards when Palace’s England international supplied the perfect cross.

Palace’s Player of the season by a country mile, AJ showed once again in this game how much his all-round game has improved. Despite the taunts from other clubs that he only scores penalties etc etc, anyone who has seen him play more than five times this season knows how good the man really is.

Despite the millions of pounds at their disposal, though, Liverpool do not have anyone like our AJ and they were reduced to a couple of long-distance haymakers from outstanding centre back Jamie Carragher as the game approached its conclusion.

Fitz Hall and Popovic stood firm throughout, ably assisted by the tenacious Michael Hughes and destroyer Aki Rihilaati, who tries harder than anyone I have ever witnessed on a football pitch.

With men like those two on our side, we’ve still got at least half a chance of doing this. Roll on the Toon Army.