January 2 2008

Neil Warnock

Not a bad little haul from the four holiday games, Jamesey reflects.

Looking at the way Neil Warnock has transformed the team and the atmosphere at Selhurst, it is tempting to draw parallels with the Dowie "miracle" season of 2003-04 when we dragged ourselves up from hopeless to peerless and won the play-offs title in Cardiff.

Personally, I don't like tempting providence but if we carry on in this vein, a play-off finish - or even higher - doesn't seem all that impossible.

Two years ago almost to the day I remember travelling home from Selhurst after our victory against Leicester City in a haze of delight. We had just taken 12 points out of 12 in the festive calendar and I personally couldn't remember that ever happening before although I am sure a statto somewhere could prove me wrong.

However, as we now know, despite reaching the play-offs again our dismal performances against Watford put the lid on any hopes of a further spell in the Bigmoneyship.

I attended both the Plymouth and Norwich games, but not the two away games, and I am surprised at the deep rift in opinions of members over the Canaries game.

My sixpenneth is that we looked rather lackadaisical. We constantly gave the ball away and hoofed when to think, hold and pass short might have been better.

Norwich, on the other hand, looked far more skilful and tactically they had better ideas. They passed more accurately and held the ball more confidently.

Other views, both in the newspapers and on our own message board, presented Palace as the superior team who were unlucky to lose.

Well, whatever your opinion, we got a point and are now unbeaten in 13 games, so there's not a lot to complain about.

A little light relief is coming on Saturday (Jan 5) when we travel to Watford for an FA Cup tie.

But whether we can manage to create a cup run or not, it's going to be a long, hard slog in the league for January and February.

Where will we be at the end of April? Your guess is as good as mine...

Email Jamesey with your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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