March 24 2006

Andy Johnson

By his own admission, the Holmesdale Online's Jamesey is the wrong side of 21 and so has seen his fair share of ups and downs from the team we all love, writes Neil McSteen.

Jamesey's latest piece bursts the bubble of optimism emanating from SE25 that AJ will make the England squad and travel to Germany for the World Cup, questioning whether our star striker should have stayed with us.

Clearly, AJ would have had a better chance of making the 26-man squad if he had joined a Premiership club.

While AJ was in the thoughts of Sven and Tord Grip in the early stages of his campaign in the second flight, his stock has fallen. Darren Bent is this season's AJ, yet the Charlton man doesn't have the scoring record to match.

It is accepted that Sven will take Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Peter Crouch with one other striker. Bent, along with Jermaine Defoe, James Beattie and Darius Vassell are the contenders now. Or so the press would have you believe.

Yes, we are biased as Palace fans in supporting AJ's cause,and for clubs of our stature the national team is still the pinnacle of football in this country. We want our players to go on and represent England.

Playing in the Championship should not harm AJ's chances. For my money, only Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen could have bettered AJ's goal away at Stoke, starting five yards behind the centre back before muscling in to score past the advancing keeper.

Live Croydon Guardian text commentary