January 23 2017

New boy Schlupp (No 31) gets stuck in during an impressive start

It was bum-freezing weather for the visit of Everton to Selhurst. Jamesey joined the packed stadium for another home defeat.

I wasn’t going to depress myself with a lament over the current malaise at Crystal Palace FC, so I started to compile a list of reasons to be cheerful.

1. At least we didn’t concede another wonder-goal for the TV pundits to drool over.

2. We’re not (yet?) bottom of the Bagsocash League.

3. Errrrrr…..?

At this point I gave up and dragged myself back to reality.

I hadn’t been to Selhurst Park since before Christmas (Dec 17) when we obligingly provided Chelsea with three points in a 0-1 defeat.

I gave the evening game where we lost to the Swans (Jan 3) a miss and likewise joined the droves who stayed away from our FA Cup Bolton Wanderers replay (Jan 17) although we did actually manage to defeat a Third Division team 2-1. Wins of any kind are indeed a rarity in these troubled times.

Our latest manager, Sam Allardyce, the self-proclaimed “keeper-upper”, has already started to make dubious noises on the lines of “tougher task than I expected” and so on.

I won’t, however, criticise Sam because I thought he was an extremely sensible and constructive appointment in the circumstances. Those circumstances are, of course, keeping us on the gravy train come hell or high water.

Sam does have plenty of games yet to fulfil our hopes although as the weeks go by, it is becoming more and more difficult to stay optimistic.

Hosting Everton (Jan 21) was never going to be an easy ride. The Toffees have been on an excellent run, as good as ours has been bad, and with talent like Leighton Baines, Ross Barkley, Romelu Lukaku and Seamus Coleman, it was always going to be a difficult challenge.

CPFC has naturally been dabbling in the January transfer window in the hope of strengthening the squad. The only addition to date has been Jeffrey Schlupp from Leicester.

Jeff came up through the Foxes academy. His provenance is a mix of presumably British upbringing, German surname and birth and Ghanaian nationality.

He made his debut Eagles appearance against Everton and had a fine game as a much-needed left-sided wing-back, defending well and scuttling up and down the flank as required.

It is unusual for the Eagles to have two fit strikers at the same time so it was interesting to see Christian Benteke and Loic Remy as a dual attacking force.

Palace looked very lively indeed for the first 10 minutes and nearly took the lead when a Benteke header hit the cross-bar.

However, Everton weren’t on a good run for nothing and gradually started to have much more of the game, with 'keeper Wayne Hennessey having to be at his very best to keep them out.

It was relief to go in 0-0 at half-time and if that had been the final score, the red-and-blue support would hardly have complained.

The relentless Toffees assault continued in the second half although another terrific header from Benteke, 11 minutes from time, had to produce a brilliant save from 'keeper Joel Robles.

Then, as has been the case before this season, Palace conceded just before full time.

Seamus Coleman’s strike was the subject of some controversy. Schlupp was injured and sprawled on the line. Neither side booted the ball out of play and the referee didn’t halt the game.

The area which Schlupp would have been defending was free and it looked as though Coleman was offside to boot.

Nevertheless the goal stood and that was that; a 1-0 win for the Toffees.

As your commentator has sat through many Palace relegation seasons, you could day that I have become rather a connoisseur (not really the right word but you know what I mean).

Somehow when you are losing games after playing reasonably well and suffering last-minute mistakes and bad officiating, it hurts more than getting stuffed 4-0 by all and sundry.

To his credit, in his post-match comments Sam was upbeat about Palace prospects, saying that the team is good enough to stay up and results will start to happen.

Those of us who have grown attached to Pilesomoulah League membership hope he is right.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

In Depth Jamesey's Veteran View Index