March 6 2002

Crystal Palace

I am horrified to see Simon Jordan quoted as saying that he wants to see our club get promoted through the play-offs in May...

Like the majority of Eagles fans, I pay homage to Mr Jordan for saving us from the great abyss and, whether you agree with him or not, always having the best interests of CPFC at heart.

But promotion with our current squad? Steve Coppell hit the nail truly on the head when he coined the phrase "nine months of misery".

I have to leave out our first spell in the top division starting in the late '60s (I was much too busy chasing girls, playing keyboards and generally abusing substances to be interested in football).

But by 1979, I was long back on the straight and narrow, bought my first season ticket and have been pretty constant ever since.

The irritating thing about our second spell in the top tier (1979-1981) was that our team was probably good enough to stay there.

It was management/board politics that messed it up and we watched abjectly as the Team of the '80s became a laughing-stock and, with a new manager every fortnight, we flopped back down again.

Our third spell (1989-93) was a little better and I admit our best season ever (third in the league) was exhilarating. It just took a little longer for us to drift back to our natural habitat, Wright-less, Bright-less and Coppell-less.

Our fourth spell (1994-95) looked promising. We won the second division championship easily with a Premiership squad. I will comment no more on this era except to mention two words. Alan Smith.

Our fifth spell (1997-98) was possibly the worst of them all while we waited until March for our first home win and seemed to get thrashed by anyone who turned up.

As this season is more likely to be remembered by the age profile of message posters on this site, I am amazed at anyone wanting to re-experience such despair.

OK, some things about the Premiership are great. You feel more important, you see all the big international names live, you never have to comb through the newspaper sports pages for an account.

But and it's a big but, let's make sure we are good enough to make a decent scrap of it first. On the evidence of recent form - Coventry, Sheff U, Grimsby and Portsmouth - we wouldn't have the chance of a snowball in hell.

Email Jamesey with any of your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com