April 30 2007

Crystal Palace

Derby County came to town needing three points to keep in touch with automatic promotion to the Premiership. The Rams failed, as Jamesey reports.

I was chatting to a crony recently, a Palace veteran like myself, about the almost deceased season.

"We've both seen far worse," I told him. "Remember the mid-70s and the early 80s."

He reflected and had to agree that a mid-table finish, even after some less-than-exciting performances, was hardly the end of the world.

Scenting my advantage, I moved in for the kill.

"At our time of life, I want to savour every season, however indifferent. How much longer will we be around, to walk down the Holmesdale Road and see the Palace aces?"

Before he could start sobbing in his beer, he realised it was my round (he is a Scotsman) and cheered up.

Anyhow, for me the 06-07 season ended on Sunday, April 29, when we put on an excellent, aggressive show to beat Derby County 2-0.

I am totally indifferent as to what happens at Colchester next week as I won't be there and it doesn't really matter much.

When I arrived at the ground, I had to skip swiftly out of the path of an expensive-looking motorbike, ridden by an intriguingly familiar black gentleman.

Later, I realised it was Mark Bright who apparently often uses that mode of transport to negotiate London for his commentary work.

What a lovely way to go that would have been - mown down by a former Palace colossus in front of the Selhurst Park portals.

And continuing with the subject of mortality, is it a reflection of our noisy era that a minute's respectful silence over the death of a widely admired figure has now become 60 seconds' frenzied clapping?

The Alan Ball "tribute" before the match was my first encounter with the new mode of mourning.

Nevertheless I was heartened to see in the flesh the new strips for 07-08 worn by the two expert football jugglers.

The shirts looked hideous in the depictions on the HOL boards but, in reality, were very acceptable.

As long as the basic red-and-blue vertical stripes for the home version are preserved, that's all right with me.

Peter Taylor and the team received a generously warm send-off after the game and came back onto the field for a "lap of appreciation" (wisely not a "lap of honour" which would have been pushing it a bit).

I popped into the Selhurst Arms in the hope of seeing a few familiar HOL faces.

Sadly, the noise, cigarette smoke (roll on the July ban, please) and the near impossibility of getting a drink through the seething ranks at the bar, persuaded me to leg it.

With the melancholy prospect of no more Palace till the July friendlies and no major football tournament to brighten the summer, I must reluctantly turn my attention to golf and tennis.

But not, definitely not, the world's most boring game after basketball, cricket...

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