April 4 2011

Neil Danns

Another fine spring afternoon saw Crystal Palace put another three points in the bag with a 2-1 victory over Barnsley.

The seasons just speed by ever more quickly. It used to seem an interminable stretch to the season's end from August but now the time streaks by and we are only seven games from the finishing line.

And what a crucial seven games they will be with the spectre of third division football looming over Selhurst.

It took us three seasons to get out of div 3 in the mid-70s and three-and-a-half decades ago you could buy a London house for £10,000 and not be jeered at in the street for having mutton-chop whiskers and a flower power shirt.

Anyhow let's not get too downbeat. If our performance against the Tykes (Apr 2) was anything to go by, we should pick up enough points to stay up.

Our new loanee from Swansea, Kemy Augustien, played a blinder and his passing and intelligent link-up work added a new dimension to the team.

In my view, Nathaniel Clyne turned in his best effort of the season and he looked every bit the player who we thought was our best ever full-back after Kenny Sansom.

On the other hand Darren Ambrose still can't seem to get his act together. He looked a shadow of the midfielder he was last season, with misplaced passes and ineffectual free kicks. It was a relief to see him subbed in the second half.

However, star of the show, as he is increasingly becoming, was the lion-hearted Neil Danns who surged through the Barnsley ranks like an unstoppable machine, spreading panic among the visitors.

He was eventually replaced after being cut down time and time again and received a standing ovation from the 20,000 crowd (the cheap prices for kids offer certainly put mini-bums on seats!).

Saturday's win puts a little more space between the Eagles and Sheffield Utd. There is now a seven-point gap and the Blades visit QPR on Monday (Apr 4) - not exactly a welcome fixture for a relegation candidate.

There is a also a cluster of four teams above us who are all within three points and quite passable.

But, of course, with two away games on the horizon, Ipswich (Apr 9) and Leicester (Apr 12), the big question of a our lamentable away form rears its head again.

With only one away victory all season, could now be the time to change our fortunes and grab some points on our travels? The puniest handful of away wins would have meant we would not be worrying about the trap-door at all. Judging by our performance against the Tykes we have the talent, the spirit and the desire to do it.

I chose the adjective "lion-hearted" to describe Danns and it was a great pleasure to see one of our Old Boys Geoff Thomas on the field at half-time. If anyone ever deserved that description it is Geoff, not only for his performances during his playing career but for his adamant refusal to lose his battle against leukemia.

Geoff, wearing the red-and-blue stripes that he proudly honoured during his Palace years, was at Selhurst, of course, to raise funds for "Football vs Blood Cancer", a project ro raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research.

If ever a project was worthy of stumping up whatever cash you could afford, it is this one.

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