Opposition View- Cardiff

This week, ahead of the game against Cardiff, the opposition view is from Phillip Nifield, from the Cardiff City Supporters Trust.

1. Who have been your stand out performers so far this season?

Our goalkeeper David Marshall has been a star performer. He has made numerous stunning saves and Cardiff City’s position would be even worse if not for Marshall. Other key players have been Jordon Mutch, who is our top scorer in the Premier League from midfield, Gary Medel and our captain Steven Caulker, who has also notched several important goals. Upfront Frazier Campbell has been very hard-working and his pace has been a threat to many defences.

2. Was Solskjaer the right choice of manager?

The jury is still out on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He had no Premier League managerial experience and several of his signings in the January window have not made the impact we hoped such as Kenwyn Jones and two of the three Norwegians side and Fabio. But he did come into a very difficult situation after the sacking of Malky Mackay. All the off-the-field controversies have undoubtedly undermined our efforts to stay in the Premier League. It is hard enough staying up without all the off-the-field nonsense.

3. How do you view the Palace game, will it be a walk in the park or a tough game?

It will certainly be no walk in the day and we are expecting a very tough game with Tony Pulis’ team keeping things very tight and hoping that his players can hit us on the break. It’s very much a make or break game for Cardiff City if we are to have any chance of getting out of trouble.

4. Who do you think is likely to get relegated at the end of the season?

Bluebirds’ fans hope that Cardiff City will defy the pundits and stay up against the odds. Fulham look odds on favourites to go down, West Bromwich Albion and Norwich, given their tough run-in if they fail to beat WBA on Saturday.

5. Out of the current Palace squad, which player would you have, and why?

You perhaps won’t be surprised if I said Joe Ledley, who is a legend at Cardiff City. He has a great engine and will always give 100%. It was a good bit of business to get Joe for such a small fee. We did try to buy Tom Ince at the start of the season so it will be interesting to see how he plays – if he’s in the starting line-up. 

6. Finally, what’s your score prediction for the game?

Very tight – 1-0 to Cardiff City

Chelsea Review- What a Day!

Yesterday was fantastic. It summed up what it meant to be a Palace fan- a brilliant win in the fabulous sunshine all in front of a packed Selhurst Park. I’m sure that many of you, like me, can’t wait to get to school or work tomorrow and gloat to all the Chelsea ‘fans’. Yesterday showed us why we deserve to be in the Premier League, whilst at the same time dragging us 3 points closer to that all important safety.

This time last year, Palace had just lost 4-0 at home to Birmingham. The promotion chase had slowed down to a halt, and many of us feared the worse. Now, exactly a year later, a famous victory was recorded against a team whose right back cost more than the entire Palace starting XI put together. Mourinho was full of praise for a Palace side who had a greater desire to win yesterday, and who fully deserve every moment of the glory that they are currently basking in.

The team selection was exactly the same as it had been at Newcastle last week. When it was announced yesterday afternoon many people were moaning. KG and Jerome were still featuring, and there was no sign of Guediora even on the substitute’s bench. I, like many, didn’t have much hope of getting anything from this game. But I was proved wrong.

From the off, Palace were the better side. Bolasie had the best chance, but couldn’t convert and ended up hitting the side netting. Then Palace had two penalty shouts, both ruled out by Lee Mason (who was awful). Half time came and went, with Palace still very much in it. Then, on 52 minutes, John Terry headed a Ward cross into his own net. Then began the longest 40 or so minutes of my life.

The players defended resolutely, and could even have had a couple more chances on the break. They showed tenacity and a desire to win, supported by a rocking Selhurst Park. When the final whistle eventually blew, the heartbreak of last week was put behind. Palace had won, in the process denting Chelsea’s title hopes. It was a win that meant so much to so many. I was jubilant.

None of the performances of any of the Palace players could be faulted. All of them worked extremely hard, and battled until the last minute. My man of the match has to go to Speroni, for his magical save against Hazard to keep Palace in the lead. Cameron Jerome was fantastic, and was unlucky not to get a goal to his name when his shot ricocheted off the post. It is important that the players stay calm for next week though. Hopefully, this victory can help build momentum for some vital clashes coming up. Cardiff will be an extremely tough opponent, but if the same level of effort is put in as yesterday then Palace can hope to bring back more points from South Wales. But until then, all Palace fans can spend the week in joy, boasting to any Chelsea fans that they meet!

Up the Palace

 

Press Conference Roundup- Pulis and Mourinho

As we edge closer to the weekend, both managers gave their views in their weekly press conference. But how will everything said affect tomorrow’s game?

Let’s start with Tony Pulis. As always, the man was calm and composed in his presser, answering some questions even before the reporter had finished. It’s great to have someone like Tony answering the questions compared to some of the other previous managers in recent years (I won’t mention any names Mr Holloway…) Anyway, one subject that Tony talked a lot on was the need for some clinical finishing. The chances are being created; it’s just a matter of the ball ending in the back of the net at the end of them. Chelsea are going to be attacking for the majority of the game, so it will be extremely vital for us to take any opportunity which we get. Last week showed us how harsh it can be when the score is still kept at 0-0, even up to the last moment.

Then it moved onto referees. Lots of big mistakes in recent weeks have left the men in black looking over their shoulders as the Referee’s association comes under a lot of scrutiny. The big decisions can ruin games, and some consistency is needed from the refs as the season. That being said, it’s vital that the fans get on Lee Mason’s back all game. Referees often get bullied by the larger clubs, but the home crowd at Selhurst is more than capable of earning the team a few decisions during the game.

It was interesting to see Tony’s reaction about the West Ham fans booing their team off after the win against Hull in midweek. He turned the attention towards the Palace fans, calling them fantastic once again. Palace have hardly played brilliant football this season, so Pulis is trying to encourage the fans to stick with him until the end of the season, even if it may be ugly. It’s always nice to hear that there is still a good level of morale within the club. At the moment, Palace are still above the red dotted line, and now it’s just a case of staying there until the end of the season.

Onto Mourinho, a man who has perhaps become more famous for his press conferences than his actual footballing tactics. He speaks brilliantly, and does an excellent job of taking the pressure off of his team. His main emphasis was on how hard the Chelsea have been working this week. After the first few games of the season, Chelsea would have been laughing about a trip to Selhurst. Now the team have become so regimented that teams actually travel to South London expecting a game. It reflects brilliantly on the job that Pulis has done, but more importantly on the excellent effort that has been put in by the players over the last few months. There is a chance, albeit a very slim one, that Palace can get something out of this game. It’ll be tough, but as Pulis said, the fans have been fantastic. Hopefully the capacity crowd expected tomorrow can inspire the team onto a famous victory.

Up the Palace

 

Chelsea Preview- A big game for both sides

It’s a London derby in two days’ time, something I’m sure every Palace fan looks forward too. Chelsea, who some argue have the potential to win the league altogether, come to Selhurst for what will be only the fourth home game before the end of the season. This is a Chelsea side who will be turning up off the back of a 6-0 win over Arsenal, and who I’m sure will want to be targeting three points to add to their title hopes. In their way stands a Palace side who haven’t scored in 513 minutes of open play. However, we all know that statistics don’t tell the whole truth, and I’m sure I’m not the only one dreaming of a miracle come 3 o’clock on Saturday.

So, how do I think we should line up? Well, apart from the heartbreak at the end, last week’s game gave the team lots of positives to take forward to this week. The main struggle is scoring. Now, Pulis only really has two options to start up front this weekend, with both Gayle and Chamakh out of action through injury. Starting with Jerome mean that his role would be to chase down Chelsea’s defence, and then there would be the option to bring Murray on later in the game. Murray would provide a threat from the off, yet would most likely tire out and have to be brought off half way through the second half. Personally, I would go with option 2. In a game where Palace are only going to be limited to a few chances, someone with a clinical nature is needed from the off.

I said last week ahead of the game against Newcastle that Jerome Thomas should be starting. I stand by this claim, as I feel he is the best crosser in the team, and a combination of his quality balls into the box and Bolasie’s pace will be vital when counter attacking. Puncheon would be the man to be dropped, yet he would still provide a decent option to come off of the bench. Apart from that, the rest of the team should be kept the same. The defence did a good job, and I thought that Dann once again showed that he is a quality player.

The key man in Chelsea’s side at the moment is Hazard. Joel Ward is going to have a tough game coming up against the young Belgian. Chelsea mainly play through the middle, with the front three all interchanging in their roles. This could give Palace an advantage when it comes to the wide players having space, and hopefully the two wingers can exploit Chelsea’s defence. Luckily, Ramires is still banned. Chelsea will be extremely tough to overcome. One of the best defence’s in the league is coming up against the worst attack. Hopefully we will all be celebrating a fantastic win come Saturday evening. There could be an upset on the cards, but who really knows- that’s the joy of football isn’t it?

Up the Palace

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Opposition View- Chelsea

Ahead of Saturday’s game, we caught up with some Chelsea fans to give us their views. Mark Worral is from Chelsea site Gate 17. http://www.gate17.co.uk/ Meanwhile, Jonty and mactheknife are both members of the Chelsea forum The Shed End. http://www.theshedend.com .

1. Obviously you must be pleased about your win over Arsenal, but who were the stand out performers?

MW-  Cesar Azplilicueta – unsung hero this season, and Oscar – genius personified.

Jonty-I thought Schurrle was our man of the match, set up Eto’o for our first goal and scored the second himself. After that with the sending off and Haz converting the penalty the game was killed off, but it all started with Schurrle.

MTK- Unfortunately I didn’t get to watch the match live but from extensive highlights, I’d go for Matic. The game was made for him given Arsenal’s centre mids.

2. Mourinho is in his second term in charge of Chelsea, has it been a successful season so far?

MW – Top of the league – still in Europe.

Jonty- He’s done more than I or anyone could have asked. The one disappointment would be the league cup exit to Sunderland but aside from that he has us top of the league without a class striker and into the quarter finals of the Champions League. He’s signed Matic who looks fantastic and Schurrle and Willian I think will both be key players for years to come. He’s got the best out of JT and made our defence impenetrable, made the Bridge a fortress again and has us undefeated in every game against the other big teams this season.

MTK – I didn’t want him back as I’m a never go back type. I didn’t doubt he is an amazing manager, the best in Chelsea’s history, but it should have been left at that. Though he came and is meeting my expectations: we are in the title race for the first time since we last won the league. No matter what happens here on, this season has been a success as fans are a lot happier compared to last year’s boardroom debacle.

3. Do you see Palace as a walk in the park compared to other games which you have played in during this season?

MW – Probably on a par with playing Arsenal at home last weekend.

Jonty- Not at all. You lot don’t concede many compared to the teams around you, you’ve only conceded 1 more than Liverpool and if there is one thing we struggle with it is breaking down a tight defence, as evidenced by our 0-0 draw against the Pikeys. I think this will be one of our hardest remaining games.

MTK- None of Chelsea’s away games this season have been easy due to a lack of a clinical striker. Palace a team with a lot of heart and Pulis will be targeting the home games to get the 10 points you need. I am and was a lot more worried about Palace than I was Arsenal, especially as you were one of the best teams to come to the bridge this season.

4. What was it like seeing Drogba back at Stamford Bridge?

Jonty- He barely had a touch all night. It was great to see him again and I’m glad we were able to thank him for all he’s done, but on the night he did virtually nothing.

MTK- It was a nice story, but I was just happy we went through. It was great that Gala were poor as it meant we were still very fresh for Arsenal. I would love to see him back as a technical director/ambassador type. He has the personality for that type of role and I think he is more suited to that than coaching. He could definitely help expand the Chelsea brand and his charitable work could expand further with a role at Chelsea. He has the capacity to give more than winning football matches.

5. Which Palace player(s) do you think will carry the greatest threat against you?

MW – Ince if he is allowed to play – which I doubt as Pulis will stick ten men behind the ball and instruct them not to advance out of your penalty area.

Jonty- I haven’t watched many Palace games this season but Jedinak looks like your leader on the field. You tend not to score goals but he does a good job of making life hard for the other team to do so.

MTK- Not joking here, I really like Cameron Jerome. He’s a proper striker and works hard for his team, just has always lacked goals. He seems to have dropped off a bit though. Ince is an enigma and could keep you up. But in my opinion, you had a terrible summer transfer window stocking your team with a bunch of nomads (I don’t rate Holloway). Your biggest player is Pulis and you are only where you are right now because of him.

6. Have you ever visited Selhurst Park before. If so, what were your thoughts?

MW – I’ve been to Selhurst every time Chelsea have played there since 1973 when we lost       2-0.  Not much has changed, I quite like that in an old school sort of way.

Jonty- Unfortunately not.

MTK- Yeah one of my first ever games was there in the late 90s, a Wimbledon game. Then I have been a few times in the last couple of years when you’ve played Middlesbrough as my dad is a Boro fan. I think you’ve got a great atmosphere and it’s great to see a lot of young faces down there unlike at Chelsea. I much prefer grounds like Selhurst than the anonymous bowls like St Mary’s and the Riverside.

7. Finally, a score prediction for Saturday.

MW -Palace 0 – Chelsea 4

Jonty- 2-0 (Chelsea). If we can grab a first I think we’ll be all right, my main fear is this ending a 0-0. I’d be very surprised if we conceded given we’re the best defence and you’re the worst offence.

MTK-Head says 1-1, heart says 2-1 Chelsea. I’ll go with my heart. The problem Pulis has against Chelsea is Chelsea teams tend to work just as hard as his, something not many other teams in the league do. It’ll be tight that’s for sure and I think it will take a late goal to win the game.

 

The beautiful game- No longer for the working classes.

We all saw the banners after our game against Chelsea earlier this season. The beautiful game is at risk of losing it’s fanbase by charging extortionate prices for children still in education, and that’s just the start of it…

Football, the working class man’s game; travelling around the country supporting your local team through thick and thin. The pain and the suffering don’t matter, the camaraderie and friendships created through our love for the beautiful game do. One week you could be painfully witnessing a thrashing in Birmingham, but the next celebrating a win in an edgy encounter over Cardiff.  The tribal element has encouraged millions of people over the years to spend their hard earned on their clubs. But when does that spending becoming too much?

I often get bored at my dad reminiscing to me about “The Good Old Days.” You could go to the football at the weekend for hardly anything. A match ticket would be about £6 for the Holmesdale Road terrace, and the programme in the 1989/1990 season would have cost you only £1. In today’s money, that should cost £14.76 for an adult to watch a game of football and buy a programme. In reality, it would have ripped a hole of £31.50 in your pocket if you wanted to buy a programme and watch Palace against Southampton in the Holmesdale Lower two weeks ago. That is over double the cost of what inflation dictates.

Now, admittedly I am being pretty harsh on Palace here, when in fact they have some of the cheapest ticket prices in the Premier League, with under 10s even being admitted in for free with a full paying adult.  So let’s take one of the biggest clubs in the world as an example: Arsenal. A season ticket would cost you a whopping £985. Yes, you do get some extra cup games included in the deal, but even so watching 24 games would equate to £41 per game. These prices are quite frankly ridiculous. Is this really the working class man’s game?

One main factor which makes football so addictive is watching your team play away. There are not many better things in life than away days, a chance for an army of away supporters to take over various different towns for a day. The sense of belonging that you feel when the players applaud you for being one of only 400 to make the trip up to Blackburn on a cold, wet Tuesday night. You can’t beat it. But these days it is getting more and more expensive. The ticket prices are extortionate- West Ham charge 16 year olds £42 for a ticket in the away end at Upton Park. Say you were travelling down from Newcastle, add in the cost of train fares and an overnight stay and the trip can cost over £100 a person. The minimum wage in the UK is currently £6.31, and so it would take 16 hours to pay for one football game. And that’s if you have a job. It is compulsory for children to now stay in full time education until they are 18 years old. How on earth is a 17 year old meant to cover £100 just for one awayday?

The list of expenses related to football goes on: Food, Beers, Programmes, etc. But why has the cost of football increased so much? Obviously nowadays there is a case of demand outstripping supply. The Premier League is a global brand, and everybody wants to go and watch some of the best players in the world like Aaron Wilbraham face each other in hotly contested matches. As modern day stadia are all-seater venues, only a limited number of people watch the games each week. However, the main problem comes from Sky. They dictate when they want the games to be played, with absolutely no regard for the fans that actually go week in and week out. Games can be changed as little as 4 weeks in advance. By that time train prices have absolutely rocketed, meaning that the fans have to make a choice between paying extortionate amounts of money or having to miss the game altogether. As well as this, the money Sky pays has led to greedy owners of football clubs playing into their hands- profiteering at the expense of us smaller and hardworking people.

Perhaps the harshest thing of all is that with only a few changes football can become affordable once gain. Clubs need to realise that students up to the age of 21 deserve larger discounts. With a massive student loan and no job, an expensive season ticket is the last priority for any young fan, meaning that they are getting priced out of the game. Clubs should buy into the “Twenty’s plenty” scheme for away fans, which aims to cap prices at £20. This will help to offset some of the high travel and accommodation costs, and will once again mean thousands of people will start regularly following their team around the country once again. But the most important thing of all is that clubs should no longer get bullied by the money-grabbing, profiteering corporate giants like Sky. Only then will football once again become a working class man’s game.

 

 

We need to build on Toon heartbreak

At around 4:49 in the afternoon yesterday, my mood turned from feeling content to being absolutely sickened. A late goal always hurts, but when it comes 30 seconds after the game is meant have finished, it can be soul destroying. I felt crushed and deflated: another game in which we have lost valuable points to poor refereeing. Having had time to reflect on yesterday’s matters, I have realised that there are some positives that can be taken from a game which we remained part of for large periods of time.

Firstly, I have to say what a wonderful player Scott Dann is. He has come straight into the side, but looks as if he has been here forever. That tackle he made towards the end was absolutely brilliant, and he is brilliant at winning headers too. I was a little upset to see Gabbidon ousted out the side, as he had done little wrong all season. But Dann is an improvement, and it is clear to see that he is a true leader as well. The fact that he said he so disappointed after the loss shows how much he cares about the club already.

Bolasie had an excellent game yesterday. Although in the past we have often been left disappointed with a lack of end product, his crossing was brilliant yesterday, and he was so unlucky not to score on more than one occasion. Yannick should be one of the first names on the team sheet every week, as his pace on the break is vital in a counter attacking team like ours.

On the other flank, the first choice winger is not so evident. Puncheon had an OK game yesterday, with some good skills and a couple of decent crosses. Personally, though, I would much prefer Thomas to be starting more games. Yes, he has been injury prone over the season, and his dive at Swansea was disgraceful, but he is the best crosser in the side. We need some good balls into the box for Muzza, Jerome and Chamakh to get their heads on.

KG and Jedi had much better games than last week. KG was unlucky with his shot in the first half, but it was an extremely tight angle, and the keeper did well. Jedi didn’t get forward as much yesterday, which was good as he didn’t make any stupid mistakes, and had a much more composed game. These two need to stay in the team. Putting Guediora or O’Keefe in would just upset the balance of the team. Plus, I can’t really think of anything good that Guediora did yesterday.

We need to learn from yesterday’s harsh result, and always keep on fighting until the final whistle. For periods of the game we were the better team, but we just need to take advantage of good spells of play and score a goal. We haven’t scored in 513 minutes of open play, a disappointing statistic. Chelsea come to Selhurst Park next week, on the back of just beating Arsenal 6-0. I’m not expecting much from the game, but let’s home there is no last minute heartbreak like yesterday.

Up the Palace.