November 9 2008

Neil Warnock

Jamesey is delighted with our 0-2 win away to Coventry but tries not to get too carried away.

There must be something about the air in Coventry that spurs Crystal Palace players to feats of excellence not often encountered at other grounds.

Our 0-2 win (Nov 8) is our fourth consecutive away league victory at the Ricoh Arena. I haven't checked but I can't begin to believe that we have matched that at any other ground.

I had the great pleasure of being there when we stormed to a 2-4 win in January 2006.

We were in the middle of the somewhat mediocre Peter Taylor reign and I, like all the other travelling Eagles, was totally amazed when we went four goals up by the 39th minute. I'd never seen anything like it in my life.

We did, of course, concede a couple later on just to keep Palace supporters' anxiety levels at a standard high level.

But, like our more recent performance, it was a cracking victory and we even got their then-manager Micky Adams the sack as well.

It was gratifying to read Neil Warnock's enthusiastic praise of the team too. It is said to be a Yorkshire characteristic not to give compliments too easily so a Tyke's pat on the back must be worth quite a lot.

Like most CPFC fans I am teetering on the brink of hoping for another little run to take us back up the table and into play-offs contention. Well, fingers crossed for Cardiff on Saturday (Nov 17).

On the subject of the play-offs, I have just received an email from our club entitled "Season Ticket Alert! A message from the Chairman Simon Jordan".

Underneath a somewhat flattering picture of Simon, is the customary pitch for us to buy our season tickets early, amongst a load of other waffle about this and that.

Simon states that: "In the last four years we have been in three play-off finals, winning one, we have spent one year in the Premiership (and should have stayed there) and we got very close last year, a width of a post denying us a play-off final place."

Hey, come on matey. We have been in one play-offs final not three, and twice reached the top six play-off positions. And Ben Watson's penalty hitting the post against Bristol City did not deny us a play-offs final place. We weren't guaranteed a win even if the ball had found the net.

Anyhow, I don't need false claims to persuade me to buy my concessionary season ticket early. It is such superb value that I cough up my cash before the end of the year every season now.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

In Depth Jamesey's Veteran View Index