January 24 2011

What the sign says might not be the case for much longer

Eagles followers were all hoping that Dougie Freedman's first home game as official manager might have bucked the players up into a special performance. But it didn't, to Jamesey's regret.

An official gate of 14,000-plus (including Robins supporters) turned up on a blustery and cold day (Jan 22) to see a game which failed to live up to Palace fans' hopes.

The Palace Crystals, our new troupe of dancing houris, did bring some excitement in the run-up to kick-off.

With so many square feet of nubile flesh on view, one really had to wonder how the girls could remain so cheerful as the spectators shivered in several layers of clothing , woolly hats, thick scarves and fur-lined boots.

Anyhow all the provocative cavorting in the world could not dispel the fact that, in an uninspiring game, Palace failed to put three points on the board and Bristol City must have returned down the motorway well satisfied with a 0-0 draw.

Freedman, of course, got a thunderous ovation from the crowd and his assistant, the veteran operator Lennie Lawrence made an appearance too.

Three Saturday home games on the trot, given that our Selhurst form has been excellent compared with our miserable away statistics, looked like a cast-iron opportunity to lift Palace from the bottom three.

The opportunity was spurned against the Robins and next week's opposition, high-flying Norwich City, will be a far more formidable foe. As for the third game against Middlesbrough (with an away fixture at Watford sandwiched in between), all I can say is: who knows?

Jermaine Easter, our new signing, looked lively up the front but Pablo Counago failed to impress, as has been the case so many times this season, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Much as I want our kids to succeed, Wilfried Zaha looks increasingly like an inexperienced learner... yes, he can produce an exceptionally clever piece of skill one minute and then pass the ball with extreme accuracy to the other side.

Interestingly when the old fox, Steffen Iversen, ran on, he oozed class with his subtle touches and clever passing. Unfortunately he was rather too subtle for most of his team-mates so little emerged from his efforts.

Darren Ambrose had an indifferent game but perhaps we are expecting too much from him these days.

One of the big talking points of the past week has been the news that our owners have made some positive moves to relocate to the Crystal Palace athletics arena. Of course, it could be years before the tangled issues of planning permission, to name just one minefield, could see us going back home again.

The subject of relocation has come up time and again on this website over the years and it is an issue on which everyone has a view.

My own attitude, as a veteran supporter who has been coming to Selhurst for over half a century, is mixed.

I am in the autumn of my years now, and quite simply I don't really want to change.

But I am overridden by another voice in my mind which tells me that with new and enthusiastic owners willing to put up some cash, it would be to the immense benefit of CPFC if they could swing it.

To be brutally honest, Selhurst Park is a bit of an old wreck now. It's an old wreck that I love dearly and would be heart-broken to leave but maybe it is time to move on to an arena more befitting the 21st century.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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