September 28 2009

Alassane N'Diaye

The script was already written... Palace thumped by CCC leaders West Bromwich Albion. But it turned out otherwise, Jamesey is delighted to say.

Well, it's been said countless times before and, no doubt, will be said again. It's never boring following the Palace.

Infuriating sometimes after our lacklustre performance against the Posh and our humiliation at home to the Iron but the 1-0 victory over Derby County last week turned the tide, at least for the moment.

It was a shame to hear Derby boss Nigel Clough whingeing about penalties they should have got, etc, etc. I always had him down as a quiet, sensible man, to some extent living in the shadow of a brilliant and outrageous father.

The Rams win was not exactly convincing but we got the three points and obviously confidence was a few notches higher as the team boarded the coach to the Midlands.

I listened to the WBA match on the BBC's excellent London station (also broadcast on Palace Player) and in the first half, it seemed as though a Baggies goal had an inevitability about it.

But the team, including our superb teenage trio, Victor Moses, Sean Scannell and Alassane N'Diaye, stuck to their guns and battled on.

When N'Diaye's goal went in just after the hour it was teeth- (and all other parts of the anatomy) clenching time. And, of course, the ref just had to give a generous five minutes injury time. But unusually instead of dogged defence, we appeared to take the game to West Brom and could have score another.

Anyhow it was the Baggies' first defeat of the season and puts us in a more respectable mid-table position and with a game in hand on most of the others.

It was a great pleasure to see the French kid N'Diaye have such a great game as well as scoring the winner.

Right from the first time I saw him play in a pre-season reserves game against Sutton United, I thought he showed immense potential, certainly comparable with Victor Moses.

He seemed to go right off the boil for a few games but Neil Warnock has retained him in the squad and it appeared that he amply repaid that faith at the Hawthorns.

And with Nathaniel Clyne and Lee Hills waiting in the wings, what a goldmine of youthful talent we have at Selhurst.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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