November 18 2004

Crystal Palace

There are two ways to deal with a last minute defeat. Descend into a pit of self-despair or put matters into perspective.

Having waited three hours in a Liverpool car park for the RAC, our current plight was well and truly dissected by those present.

Aside from Andrew Johnson, our league position and the talismanic Iain Dowie there are a number of other plus points.

Unlike Bolton and Portsmouth, we're not relying on faded foreign stars on 12 month contracts to keep us up thanks to Dowie’s knack of picking up lower league players with untapped potential.

Our youth policy is also producing dividends as Ben Watson and WAYNE ROUTLEDGE’s England call-ups show. With Tom Soares appearing regularly for the first team, Palace have an impressive trio of homegrown heroes.

Palace chairman Simon Jordan has also vowed to spend in the January transfer window if it means the Eagles had a chance of staying up.

Looking back 12 months ago Steve Kember had just been sacked after Palace had lost 5-0 away at Wigan and Kit Symons was in temporary charge, salvaging a point at home against Preston.

In that context, a last minute defeat away at Liverpool is immensely preferable!