June 7 2004

Neil Shipperley

"Lay down and rest your weary head, night is falling, you have come to Journey's End" - it's the opening Line of Annie Lennox's song "Into The West", writes Simon Pophale.

As we ourselves made that journey, into the West of Cardiff to the Millennium Stadium, here is a retrospective look at the season, which has seen more ups and downs that the lifts at the Eiffel Tower.

Pre-season

The grey skies that hung over Selhurst Park were beginning to disappear slowly with the sacking of the highly-unpopular and dour Trevor Francis. The ever-popular and long-serving Steve Kember replaced him. And with the signing of Neil Shipperley, things were looking up as we headed into pre-season.

Pre-season had for once, some meaningful opposition and also some home games, something which has become a bit of a rarity over the years. Hats off to Simon Jordan, who pulled two great fixtures out of the bag for us to enjoy - PSV Eindhoven and Chelsea.

After a 6-1 win at Whyteleafe and 1-1 draw at Luton, we hosted Dutch champions PSV. Clearly a class above us, they scored after only two minutes through Mark van Bommel.

He was busy as well, as PSV carved out chance after chance and we were very lucky not to be three or four down before the half-hour mark. Clearly at this point, it was clear to Champions League-bound PSV that this was a mismatch of epic proportions and they took their foot of the pedal and comfortably strolled to the victory.

We had one or two chances, but never really threatened the scoresheet. However, although Palace had lost the Phillips Cup, against a team packed with internationals such as Waterreus, Vennegor of Hesselink, Kezman and Arjen Robben, it was an entertaining afternoon.

Next up was Chelsea, and we got to see first-hand what money can buy. A team littered with world-class players – most of which were on show. Duff, Johnson, Geremi, Lampard and Terry all played their part in what has to be one of the biggest attendances for a pre-season game.

Although we lost 2-1, it was again a measure of the intent that Jordan was showing, and it did show the gap in class between ourselves and what we hopefully aspire to be. Positive signs then, as we entered the league programme.

August

We started off well in August with an opening day 3-2 win at Burnley, with Dougie Freedman netting a hat-trick. It seems, the Scotsman, effervescent as ever, was going to sparkle once again. Although we had Wayne Routledge sent off after only 10 minutes, and then in the second half, Shaun Derry went off as well. Still nine men and a win, so no complaints.

Next up was Torquay in the League Cup, and although Dougie was on the scoresheet again, we went down to 10 men again when Popovic was sent off, before scraping through on penalties.

The first home game of the season was against Watford and we managed to maintain our good record against them by winning 1-0, with an early goal from Neil Shipperley, his first since signing from Wimbledon.

Speaking of the Wombles, they were our next opponents and they were despatched 3-1. Again Dougie was on the scoresheet for his fifth of the season and the first league table of the season showed that Palace were top.

This might have given the players an inflated opinion of themselves as the next game at home to Sheffield United, a team mooted for big things, we managed to lose 2-1.

Had Shipperley not missed an early penalty it would have all been a bit different, but the loss of Freedman with a hamstring injury was going to prove crucial. Andy Johnson replaced him, and scored from the spot himself. But none the less, it was Sheffield United who took the spoils.

The final game of the month was away at Millwall, and although injuries and suspensions ravaged us, we held out until the last minute when Bob Peeters managed to scramble home an equaliser.

Unjust maybe, but we had started the season well, despite yet another player sent off. This time it was Tommy Black - the fourth player in a month and surely a club record. That aside, it was a positive start to the season.

September

Simon Jordan took advantage of a free weekend to schedule a game at home to Brescia from Serie A and in a pulsating encounter, Palace lost 4-3.

Next game was Sunderland away, and although Johnson managed to get a late equaliser, Marcus Stewart, a constant thorn in our side, scored an injury-time winner to deny us a point and we lost 2-1. It goes from bad to worse as three days later, we lost 1-0 at home to a below-average Bradford side.

The following Saturday we entertained a West Brom outfit enjoying a resurgent start to the season. Honours were, however, left even in a 2-2 draw despite an outstanding display from the Baggies' Jason Koumas and with a last-minute goal, we salvaged a point with a goal from AJ at the death. Progress was also forthcoming in the League Cup, as two penalties saw off a determined Doncaster Rovers side 2-1.

The last game of the month was the favourite trip to Norwich. Shaun Derry gave us a lead in the second minute, but we ended up pointless from Norfolk as goals from Darren Huckerby and a last-minute effort from Malky Mackay sealed a 2-1 win for the Canaries, the early season pace setters. All in all, a bad month with only one point gained.

October

If September was bad, October was showing no signs of respite either. In midweek against West Ham, we were sufficiently despatched 3-0. However, despite having four games in a row at home, which started off with a 2-1 win against Cardiff, this was the month that saw us slip further down the table.

Failure to win against Derby and Rotherham (both 1-1 draws) saw us take two points out of six. Then in the last game of the month, Ipswich beat us 4-3, despite being two goals down, early on. In total, five points out of a possible 18 were taken. But we had no idea what was coming next…