December 13 2010

Crystal Palace

Could Palace show the nation, glued to Saturday evening Sky TV, that the Eagles are set to soar up the table? Unfortunately No, reports Jamesey.

They were fit, moved in perfect symmetry, and held the crowd spellbound as they moved from end to end with almost casual ease.

Well, that was the Crystals, our new dancing girl troupe. The footballers were another matter completely.

Fellow strugglers, Middlesbrough and Preston, both picked up three points earlier in the day (Dec 11), so the omens were not looking good for the boys in red-and-blue.

Hull City were certainly the poorest team we have seen at Selhurst this season but, even so, in a first half of stunning mediocrity, for the most part, the Eagles looked to be on the back foot.

An official crowd of 13,341 (my guess, 10,500) yawned their way through the inaccurate passes and muffed scoring opportunities.

It must be said, however, that we may have missed our chances but Hull hardly produced any at all and our usual miracle man, Jullian Speroni, had a night of almost total inactivity. And it was great to be able to celebrate our keeper's signing of a new contract. How deep in the mire would we have been without him on so many occasions this season?

In the second period, Palace did look a little more urgent and my favourite player, Alassane N'Diaye joined the rota of near misses and squandered certainties with a clever swerver.

Alassane first caught my eye playing for a Palace XI against Sutton United in a pre-season friendly in the summer of '09.

I always admired his strong midfield skills and many were comparing him to the great Patrick Vieira in the ex-Gunner's heyday. But the Frenchman can be erratic and he turns 21 in a couple of months so we can't really call him a "kid" any more.

Anyhow, Alassane certainly polarises supporters' opinions and many made him MoM against Hull while quite a few thought he was absolute (expletive deleted).

At the other end of the career spectrum, playing for the city of his birth, 36-year-old Nick Barmby showed that he is a long way from the scrap heap. With 24 full England caps to his name, the diminutive midfielder reminded us why he was held in such high regard in his time.

Nick's team-mate, John Bostock, who was on the bench, arouses strong antipathy at Selhurst for reasons which hardly need elaborating yet again.

I was once introduced to his father, a quiet and pleasant individual, who at the time was earning a living driving a mini-cab. In many ways I can hardly blame anyone doing that job for wanting his talented son to earn big bucks in quick time. Unfortunately the Bostock affair was totally mismanaged and earned John much unnecessary opprobrium from Palace supporters.

As it turned out young Bostock didn't take part so the Selhurst boo-ometer did not hit heights unheard of since the last visit of Steve Bruce with Birmingham City.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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