Premier League Match 14 - Crystal Palace 3 Southampton 0

We Are the Team You Wanna Play if You're on a Shit Run

If the mood around our club was euphoric after the Arsenal cup win, the next day it came crashing back down to us with allegations of historical sex abuse at the club. With the recent revelations from players up in the north it was basically only a matter of time before this resurfaced again in connection with Southampton. I remember seeing a BBC documentary in the late 90s where Dean Radford spoke of his ordeal at the hands of a youth coach. As far as I know, there was a court case and rightly or wrongly, the coach in question was cleared so I guess there must be a load more evidence for the same player to come out and talk about the same incidents as he had in the original documentary.

I guess that explains why the name of the coach was mentioned in the original program but not in the recent South today interview (Update: Bob Higgins has now been named… again). The coach in question had a reputation that was well known in the city in the 80s.   Evidently, none of this was known at my school in Waterlooville when he rocked up and ran a coaching session. It makes me shudder to think about it to be quite honest.  All I remember about the actual session was that it was a couple of passing drills followed by a 20 a side kick about.  Load of rubbish.  However this plays out, I hope that the players in question get the result they wish for.

To today and a trip to Selhurst Park.  It has to be said to the Crystal Palace are in a bit of a crisis. A recent league table of all 92 clubs in the football league and the results for the last calendar year put Crystal Palace in 92nd place. If you just look at that, in the current climate it's an absolute miracle that Alan Pardew is still in the job. Since that league table was published, they've managed to continue their losing run to 6 matches in a row which ironically is exactly the same length of losing streak that Hull City had until we rocked up there a few weeks ago.

On paper, Palace have a decent side.  They spent £32 million on Benteke up front and have the attacking talents of Puncheon, Zaha and Townsend.  Ledley and MacArthur are a decent enough defensive midfield shield which they need with the ropey Dann and Delaney at centre back.  They seen to struggle when Pards tries to shoehorn Cabaye into the side somewhere and his suspension today along with selecting Tomkins at right back instead of the horrific Martin Kelly makes them look a lot more solid on paper.

Saints have reverted to the side that played against Everton with the only difference being Boufal for Sims who is on the bench.  This is probably harsh on Sims but Boufal looks right up for it from the start with some ridiculous dribbling in the edge of the box which leaves about 4 defenders wondering where he’s gone before firing in a shot which Hennessey saves comfortably.  He’s at it again seen after, taking ona  couple, then having a dive which isn’t given before recovering the ball, turning Tomkins insie out and squaring for Bertrand whose shot deflects and just past the post with Hennessey going the wrong way.

Palace give a warning as to where their main threat lies as Zaha gets down the wing and puts over a good cross which Beneke meets and has a 50p head moment and thumps the header wide.  There is however, no creativity needed from Palace for what comes next as Cedric goes back to Fonte on the right and he slides it across for Fraser to clear, in theory.  In reality, Fraser takes a bit swing with his left boot but the ball flicks off his right foot and he plays a massive air shot.  Oh look there’s Benteke hiding behind him and he rolls it into an empty net.  You don’t know whether to laugh or cry really but you have to say that it’s been coming from the point of view of Fraser’s kicking which has been pretty random of late.

Two minutes later and a Palace corner from the left.  Puch takes it, Ledley flicks on along the ground and we play statues and just watch as it rolls across to Tomkins who is virtually standing on the line and 2-0.  Where the fuck was everyone?  SO from being totally in control and being the better side, we’re now 2-0 down three minutes later.

We have a go at getting back into it before half time but our efforts are summed up by Cedric putting a great cross over and absolutely no one attacking it.  From his next cross, it loops up off of Austin and Hojbjerg meets it with a left footed volley and succeeds in sending them ducking for cover in the stand behind the goal.  Truth is we haven’t been that bad but we’ve let in two shit goals.

As we start the second half I’m thinking that if we get one back then Palace are going to shit themselves and we may well go on and win it but all we manage in the opening 15 minutes is a cross from Redmond who has woken up and Boufal takes his eye off it as the a defender closed him down and lashed a volley well over.  Sims is on for Hojbjerg as we go for it but it really doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.  JWP has a massive shout for handball which it seems no one else in the ground has spotted.

Sims is trying to make things happen and takes a pass off of Boufal before curling a shot just over the bar.  You can feel any belief we had ebbing away and Austin raises a jog for the first time in the match when he jogs off to be replaced by Shane Long.  As he went on, Claude said “Right Shane, I know you haven’t scored since fucking Domesday but if you could manage two in the next 20 minutes, that would be great”.  No worries says Shane and his first touch is a header from a Cedric cross which at least brings a save out of Hennessey.  Bertrand’s corner is cleared out, JWP returns it and it hits Virgil’s head and loops up and bounces off the bar.  It’s crossed back in to Fonte and he has a free shot from 6 yards and shanks it miles wide.  Fucking hell.

That was the last chance.  A goal then and we still could have got something but what happens?  Palace get a corner which is cleared, a shot comes in and deflects straight to Puncheon and his cross is knocked in from 3 yards by Benteke who has casually taken a stroll into the six yard box with no one marking him.  3-0, ridiculous, let’s go home it’s one of those days.

So what is it then?  I don’t think we’re tired with all the games because of the rotation of the squad.  You can’t have it both ways – you can’t rotate the squad and have tiredness as an excuse.  Is it attitude?  We’ve lost to Hull and Palace after they’d lost the previous six games?  Do we turn up with an air of superiority and get beaten because the opposition want it more and we just turn up expecting to win?  I hope not.  If you just look at the goals conceded today, the first one is a goalkeeper mare which can happen, the second is just shit defending and the third is a bit unfortunate as the original shot is blocked and deflects perfectly to Puncheon.  So, Palace had the breaks but you make your own luck and we didn’t deserve any.  We had 45 minutes of being good in front of goal against Arsenal in midweek and at half time on Wednesday we’ve reverted to the norm of being shite in front of goal.  This doesn’t help.  At 2-0, Jose Fonte had a great chance and you can make all the excuses you like about him being a centre half and it falling to the wrong player and all that but you just know that Palace would have shit themselves had we made it 2-1 with 15 to go but no, we let them keep their first clean sheet since the 21^st century began.

We’ve lost this because our defending was horrific which is unusual for us.  They’ve scored three goals from a combined distance of about 3 yards.  You have Fraser’s massive fuck up for the first goal, some stand and watch defending from the corner for the second goal and José just letting Benteke wander into the six yard box on his own for the third goal.  They didn’t really have many more shots on goal.  We were the better side until the final third by a country mile but we’ve lost 3-0.  Great.  Propaganda football at its best.  There was some great skill and tricks from Boufal but he can’t do it on his own.  If there is absolutely no goal threat from the other strikers then we’re going to struggle. 

The forwards were piss poor today with only Boufal showing anything in flashes and Redmond was non-existent.  Sadly, Charlie Austin was dreadful today, on his heels and easy to mark.  Delaney is a pretty limited defender but if you just stand there he’s going to win everything all day.  Hindsight is wonderful but surely Long would have been a better bet up front today but that would have admittedly been a tough call from the start as he hasn’t scored since last year’s Christmas tree still had needles on it. Interestingly, my boss who is a Palace fan and therefore has no preconceived ideas about our players thought that JWP was our best player in that at least he tried to do the right things for the whole game.  He also said that we were by far the more accomplished team but that we wouldn’t have scored if we’d played all night.  It’s a worrying habit we’ve got and we’ve have several games like that this season.

Next up we have our most important European game, probably ever with Hapoel Be’er Sheva at home where as you doubtless know, we need a win or a 0-0 draw.  It promises to be a defining night.  Win that and everyone will be happy, fuck it up and …

Will our captain Jose Fonte be playing.  Evidence suggests not as he’s not played a single minute in the Europa League as yet.  A story has emerged that he has been throwing a strop since the start of the season because Saints didn’t sell him to Everton.  Assuming this is true, I guess it’s entirely realistic of him to expect Saints to sell to the manager who has just shafted them.  Having turned down Everton’s bid and the media driven non-bid from Manchester United, José has been mysteriously missing from every Europa League match.  I will be absolutely spewing if I find out that either he’s refused to play in the Europa League out of protest or we haven’t picked him because we or he doesn’t want him to be cup tied for a potential move to United.  If the club have made the decision not to play him then we have directly undermined our own chances for the sake of a want-away player and a different club. 

Winning the Euro’s with Portugal and changing his agent (to the same one as Mourinho) certainly seems to have moved the goalposts for our José.  Whatever happens with him – he is a club legend and always will be.  At nearly 33, I have no issue if there is genuine interest and money on the table from a huge club (not Everton).  It’s almost a Sir Rickie Lambert scenario where you can’t deny him the opportunity. If indeed he is off in January, probably to United I have a feeling the Lambert comparisons won’t stop there and within 6 months he’ll getting the odd game in the EFL Cup and losing his place in the Portuguese side after United sign two £40 million centre backs in the summer.  Careful what you wish for.  I say that a lot and no one ever listens.