February 23 2005

Selhurst in the Snow

Where are the next points coming from? Looking at the fixture list Saturday's game against the still despised Birmingham City looks like our best hope of any points before April, and therefore becomes a must win, writes Neil McSteen.

But unlike when we grabbed a 1-0 win in October at St Andrews, Steve Bruce now has virtually a full squad to pick from, and one that was strengthened during the transfer window.

Getting anything against the mid-table Blues will be hard.

Looking at March, it gets worse. Just two games. At home to the in-form Manchester United and away to champions elect Chelsea.

It's unlikely that Iain Dowie will ever admit to writing these two games off, but Palace fans, being a realistic (pessimistic?) breed, we already have. Ideally, Southampton and Blackburn will be filling up their spare weekends in March not with shopping trips, but further gruelling FA Cup ties (and replays).

As much as Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp talk about "nice distractions" of the knockout competition it is exactly that a hindrance to their Premiership survival.

Hopefully by the time we start the run-in (six games in April!) we'll still be sitting pretty in 17th spot with all to play for.

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