September 13 2009

Neil Warnock

Jamesey isn't too confident about our form these days but our 0-4 stuffing at the hands of Scunthorpe United was a profound shock.

In April of last year, Scunthorpe United came to Selhurst, were defeated 2-0 and were relegated to the third division (I am becoming increasing unwilling to refer to the leagues by ridiculous names such as Championship League 1... it's the third division for pete's sake).

It was nothing personal, we won the game and subsequently reached the play-offs and, of course, were unsuccessful.

The Iron went down but bounced back and on Saturday (Sept 12) gained their revenge with a humiliating defeat of the Eagles on our own turf. It was Scunnies versus bunnies.

I feel it was a wake-up call that is all too welcome.

After our dreadful performance against Peterborough United I was disconcerted (I don't get incandescent, livid or furious any more in case of cardiac arrest) to read the comments of our manager and captain in the Scunny match programme.

Neil Warnock reckoned that he was pleased with the attitude of the players as a whole while Shaun Derry thought that the Posh result was a good one in more ways than one.

Well, if that is what they thought of our pathetic display against Peterborough, the debacle against the Iron was well overdue.

One swallow doesn't make a summer and, likewise, one wobble doesn't make a catastrophe, and it is a long haul yet to next spring.

Coincidentally, Sept 12 was the 20th anniversary of our famous 9-0 doing by Liverpool although I don't think there are too many common conclusions to be drawn

We were on holiday in Crete and, before the days of mobiles and internet, my brother-in-law and I bought a Sunday paper and skipped through to the results. Nine-nil? Must be a misprint we concluded.

It wasn't till I got home and dissevered that our house-sitter and his mates had hung an enormous "9-0" poster opposite the front door that we realised it was far from a misprint.

Anyway, getting stuffed away by one of the best teams in the world is a far cry from being half-stuffed at home by a team we should have defeated with some ease.

Not only that, the 1989 result prompted the unjustly maligned chairman, Ron Noades, to delve deep into the coffers and spend a lot of money on bolstering the squad with some big signings, Nigel Martyn, to name but one.

Times and circumstances change and that can't happen now because we simply don't have the dosh.

It is definitely time for Neil Warnock to earn his large salary, do a "Capello" and work some effective mind treatments on the players we have got.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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