August 9 2006

Selhurst Park

Jamesey opened his daily paper with great relish this morning (Aug 9) to see CPFC top of the CC Championship after a 3-1 victory over Southend the previous evening.

One new manager, two dodgy first halves, two excellent recoveries, two Dougie substitutions, five lovely goals, six points...and Robert's your father's brother, top of the league on goals scored.

Well, it's only two games into the season, I know, but it's a massive improvement on our first home game last season, comprehensively beaten by newly-promoted Luton.

Let's enjoy that feeling for a few days at least. After all, the only time we ever topped the elite division was in 1979 and that was only for a few days as well. But a great few days they were all those years ago.

As the years roll by, the first home game of the season becomes quite an emotional time. Some of us older supporters are sometimes quite relieved to see that our contemporaries have survived the summer.

It's strange how you can know a group of people well, merely through the bond of being a club supporter and having a season ticket seat nearby. Although I know some of my fellow Main Stand friends really well and on first name terms, I wouldn't have a clue where exactly they live or what they do for a living.

Anyway, everybody I hoped to see was there although it was a shame it was a Tuesday night game. I think the rather disappointing crowd of 18,000 reflected what a difficult problem evening games are for some who have work commitments and don't live locally.

A Saturday fixture would, I am sure, have pulled in a few thousand more.

I have already given my personal seal of approval to new boys Mark Kennedy and James Scowcroft in my last column. I must now add Leon Cort and Carl Fletcher to the list. They both had cracking games.

In my enthusiasm to be back at Selhurst Park once more, I even planted a chaste kiss on the cheek of my favourite senior steward, Pauline, which was accepted without any obvious revulsion.

It's great what you can get away with when you're old and harmless...

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