Crystal Palace - April 1999

I ended the last report with the quote "should make next week a lot of fun". I really should have qualified that. With QPR needing to get a better result than Bury to stay up Palace went to Loftus Road, put in their worst performance of the season and got thumped 6-0. To make it even better we had two players sent off, one of them, Fan, for an alleged assault on the referee. Since he was suspended earlier in the season for a similar offence this does not look promising. Actually it looked innocuous from the stand and replays later showed that the ref was holding up play by juggling the ball while Palace were trying to take a free kick. Fan went to get the ball and knocked the ref's arm out of the way. Red card time. Woozley also got marched after shoving a player from behind when he was about to tap into an empty net.

So what went wrong? It had been coming for some time as youthful exuberance was starting to wear off after the ten game unbeaten run saw relegation avoided. After that was achieved against Sunderland each game seemed a little more anti-climatic. At the end there was nothing left to play for. Having said that QPR did look the better team (although if they had looked worse and still won 6-0 then I'd've been worried). The first went in from the edge of the area past a static Miller early on. The second one really killed the game. Miller was at fault again as a long punt up field from their keeper saw Miller advance, stop, back up, go forward, then watch as a header went past him to hit the post but rebound for an easy tap in just before half time. After that it was one way traffic as Palace played the end of term formation where structure, especially midfield, is thrown away in the pursuit of running around like headless chooks. The third and fifth goals conceded were due to horrible defending while there was really no way to stop the shot that lead to the fourth. The last was from a penalty which Miller actually saved before blocking the follow up shot. Sadly, the shot after that went in.

Good points from the day? Well, not surprisingly there weren't many on the pitch. The Palace part of the crowd was vocal. Hearing the silence from the home supporters many a chorus of "you're supposed to be at home" was sung. Until the second goal went in the chant of "you're playing Millwall next year" was also popular. The QPR supporters were very quiet though and it was only when the fourth goal went in that they started to make any real noise. I'm not sure if thats how they were during the season but it was a pretty poor effort for what was their team's most important game of the season. Perhaps though they have hit on new method. Be silent so the players can concentrate.

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Exocet

HUDDERSFIELD (1st May 1999)

The last home game of the season rolled around all too soon. A season ending with the unusual situation of Palace not battling for promotion or trying to avoid relegation still threw up enough of interest to put paid to the theory that end of season mid-table battles are dire affairs. With Sun and Petric still injured from the last match and the returning Tuttle also out through illness it was necessary to replace them with, you guessed it, even more youngsters. This gave the starting team an average age of somewhere around twenty which must be a record for league football.

The fun started before the game with the protest march against the chairman and his inability to run a football club. According to one of the fanzines he also has an inability to tell the truth as well. The march ended with the grim reaper presenting a 6,000 signature petition calling for Goldberg to stand down. The game was also prefaced with the release of many black balloons.

Once the game started Palace were keen to attack and, roared on by a reasonable 17,000 crowd (for a long weekend), went ahead when Morrison (who else) out-jumped the defence and headed a cross home. After that Huddersfield did start looking the more composed team and were becoming more threatening. That they still had eleven men on the pitch at this time was a surprise as a shocking challenge on McKenzie saw him limp off. The referee only awarded a yellow card when such a cynical foul deserved a red. The substitutions continued throughout the rest of the half when Fan and a Huddersfield player clashed heads in the penalty area. Fan stayed down a long time which is most unusual for him while the other player didn't move. Eventually he was stretchered off and, thankfully, he was starting to move about a bit. Mixed in with this were two other goals. The first saw the Palace defence get into a bit of a mess and Mullins, who generally had a good game, produced a tame header into the path of an opposition player who gleefully smacked it in from six yards out. Then came a hotly disputed penalty. Miller raced out as their player ran on. Miller went down and knocked that ball away before the Huddersfield player pretended to be Jurgen Klinsmann and sailed through the air. The bastard in the black, a Mr Anthony Bates, pointed to the spot. It being duly converted the score stood at Cheating Northerners 2, Palace 1. Realising they were up against twelve men a lot of effort and a bit of luck saw the score stay that way until half time.

The second half started as the first ended with Palace under the cosh again. However, after five minutes it became obvious the tide was turning. After Morrison played most of the first half up front by himself with the loss of McKenzie a reorganisation saw three players pushed forward. Fan was one of those and after being anonymous in the first half seemed to relish the chance. He ran for everything including at one point a twenty yard dash towards a Huddersfield player who passed cross field. He chased that player and then went for yet another who mis-controlled and put it into touch. Running seventy yards to earn a throw-in shows the level at which this team now works. With all the pressure it was surprising to see Huddersfield hold out for so long. But with skill and a bit of luck they did hold out until a glorious cross from the left saw Dean Austin charge in hit a classic far post header. Unfortunately it hit the inside of the post and bounced off the keeper. There then followed an almighty scramble before Morrison poked home to equalise. After that Palace decided to go for the win and played wonderfully entertaining football. On yet another sortie into the box Fan was hacked down from behind but Master Bates (aptly named because he was the biggest wanker there) waved play on. This meant successive games where we had both conceded and been denied goals because of appalling decisions. Add to this the terrible last minute penalties awarded against us in the WBA and Bradford games and it means at least four against and only Sasa's dive against Watford in the credit column. When you're down on your luck....

In the last five minutes Coppell brought on his third and last substitute. This was a record in itself as I don't think Stevie has ever used all three subs before. The debutant lad's name is Richard Harris and he took precisely thirty seconds to become a crowd hero. When he came on Palace had a throw eighteen yards out. He stepped up and hurled it high, wide and handsome straight into the box. There was a huge response from the crowd, even more so when a few seconds later we had another throw on the other side of the pitch. Mr Harris ran across to cheers which reached a crescendo when he managed to send this one thirty yards into a suddenly panic stricken Huddersfield defence. They did break with the ball but were tracked back by the now ubiquitous Harris who ran fifty yards to dispossess their player. Despite the pressure Palace couldn't quite grab that last goal and almost paid for it at the end when Huddserfield became dominant for the last two minutes of the game and had one wonderful move down the right end with their striker sliding the ball agonisingly across the face of the goal.

At full time the players got a huge cheer while the referee picked up his guide dog and white stick and headed off to a chorus of boos. Steve and the team then did a lap of honour which must be the first time ever by a team that has finished mid-table! The other great news on this almost perfect day was that Hartlepool got a point to ensure their league status and QPR lost which means they need at least at a point to guarantee survival. Should make next week a lot of fun.

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