August 16 2002

Alex Kolinko

Trev doesn't see eye-to-eye with Kolinko. So a clip round the ear becomes a bloody nose. The real damage is to Palace, just like L'Affaire Cantona all those years ago, says Jamesey...

Typical Palace, typical Palace... Our first home game of the new season against Bradford on a balmy August night and we were served somewhat lacklustre fare by our rapidly changing team.

The maximum cheer I can extract from our performance is "promising" but others will, of course, disagree. The main interest of the media the following day turned out to be an incident between our Trev and substitute keeper Kolinko.

A laugh, a "clip round the ear" and a "sending-off' for Trev have escalated, as I write, into a broken nose, allegations of assault and police and FA investigations.

It's all rather reminiscent of a winter's night in January 1995 when Monsieur Cantona kick-boxed his way into the news with his now infamous assault on a Palace spectator.

A much bigger incident, of course, but again all the interest was at the front of the newspapers rather than the sports sections

at the back.

The result was the same too - a 1-1 draw with Man U although hardly anyone remembers that. I was sitting in the main stand for that game too and had a ringside view of the entire incident.

I can't raise a lot of sympathy for Cantona and his subsequent playing of the race card. A professional footballer quite simply should not assault a spectator however deeply provoked.

Equally I have even less sympathy for a so-called fan who runs down to the barrier to pour out obscenities, hatred and venom on a sent-off player.

Just as odious in my view.Well, we don't really know how our current Trev/Kolinko affair will pan out.

Anyone who is interested enough to read this column will know my attitude towards physical violence. But Trev punching someone on the hooter?

Didn't think he had it in him...Whatever happens in the end, the whole incident is hardly conducive to better morale and superior performances on the field.

Typical Palace, typical Palace...

Email Jamesey with any of your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com