February 28 2013

Selhurst Park

Crystal Palace should aim for nothing but the top-two promotion places, writes Rob Seltzer.

The business end of the season is upon us and here we are lying in fourth place, four points off that coveted automatic promotion place but in typical Palace fashion, this season has been one hell of a roller coaster already.

While a lot of Palace fans, who given our recent years, very understandably, believe that no matter what this has been a good season. I believe that we have to start to believe and aim higher.

After the debacle at the start of the season, the incredible run, the managerial switcheroo, it is very much an understandable point of view but one which I believe can hold us back.

During the winning run, some fans got accused of ‘expecting’ to win and so when the team didn’t the ground went quiet. That is the mentality we have to take to go to the next level.

We need to be rid of the mentality of ‘we are playing XYZ next they are a good team we will struggle to beat them.’ Let them worry about us. Let them write about stopping Wilfried Zaha and Yannick Bolassie. Prevent Glenn Murray from scoring and starving Kevin Phillips of the ball when he comes on.

We have gone from a team with a good first 11 but a bit of a weaker bench, to a team with a good first 11 and a formidable bench. After our recent 4-1 win over Middlesborough, Ian Holloway came out and said even though we were 1-0 up at half-time he was bored and wanted more. That is the attitude!

We need to go out and put teams to the sword. Even if it doesn’t happen, some games the ball just won’t go for you, we need this mentality of we are going to win every game.

The best teams around Man Utd, Man City, Barcelona, Real Madrid have this mentality. It is a shock when they don’t win. I am not saying we are on the same level as these teams, nor am I saying that we will win every game for the rest of the season, but let’s change our mentality to that. That will feed into the playing squad from us fans that we believe.

No more talking up teams like Cardiff and Watford, it is all about Palace and we are good enough to get at least second place in this league and take our club onto the next level. COYP