Eagles Grounded At St James’ Park

If you were at St James’ Park to see a plucky Crystal Palace succumb to Newcastle United, you would be hard pushed to pick a highlight of the night, Nile Rangers 90th Minute strike being a great finish at then end of a very good break, would be mine, yes, we waited 90 minutes for any type of quality…

There was more bad than good last night but the result is another much needed 3 points, we increased our distance from the play-offs to an 8 point gap and still have a game in hand over Forest, so can the doom mongers please give it a rest.

I’m not sure it’s just me and the lad’s I sit with, but are referee’s giving us a rough ride this seaon, at least in our home games? Alan Smith was dishing out some moderate tackles, and receiving all kinds of elbows, tackles from behind and blatant pushes for his efforts – we are no shrinking violets I know but Palace, especialli in the second half were trying to muscle their way back…and the referee was again poor.

The ugly would be our obvious lack of cover at the back, with new boy Williamson (Sponsors Man Of The Match) coming in (doing a great job by the way, looks a good signing but early days” and Kadar having to switch from right to left due to the hamstring injury to Enrique, topped off by Fabrice Pancrate being introduced at right back, I suppose desperate measures. Palace were there for the taking, but Gutierrez without Enriques support was less effective too, and Guthrie, I think we should put that down the a bad day at the office.

I think we just have enough to sustain our position in the top 2 of the Championship, not due to our class but due to the lack of quality elsewhere, but let’s not get hasty, with Leicester and Cardiff coming up, we’re in for some tough games against the better opposition.

Routledges introduction also added a bit of spark to the game, in his short spell he beat a few players and delivered some fairly decent crosses, I think in time, with a fit defence, our right sided attack will be almost as good as our left, all we need now is the finishing!

I’d also like to mention two the lad’s in the John Hall West Corner – thanks for the half time entertainment, Pupil A – you delivered a precise drop kick to the back of Pupil B whilst engaged in downward stair walking, but Pupil A did not expect Pupil B to retaliate by way of a knockout punch – oh how I laughed, I mean – you’re both grounded!

So, a long way to go but, we are still top of the pile, none of us expected it so let’s not moan too much about the performance last night, we need to hope improvement in our game is seen against Leicester on Saturday night…