Showing posts with label crystal palace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crystal palace. Show all posts
Q is for Question

I have a question...

What if all this bluster about the European Super League is actually just another of the big clubs smoke screens to get every one wound up so that when they announce it isn't happening we all pretend to like them and don't mind when they demand a bigger slice of the Prem's riches in return for binning the idea?

Project Restart couldn't have gone any better for Palace as they comfortably saw off Bournemouth at the Vitality courtesy of a sublime free kick and a beautiful team goal.

My Palace made me proud as they supported Black Lives Matters on their shirt sleeves and their backs in place of their name,s and I love that they all took the knee in solidarity.

New Year's Day

I've not blogged about Palace for a long time so you'll have to excuse this post.  Though in reality it's not entirely about Palace.

It's exactly six years since I've been to a Palace game (see Palace Result - With A Difference) but what an occasion it was. I got to take Joel to his first ever match and he absolutely loved it! As a dad and a Palace fan it made for a very special afternoon for me and one I'll never forget


C has to be for Crystal Palace!

My beloved football team.

One of the things I love when the England football team play is that for a while every English football fan gets to understand something of what it's like to be a Palace fan. The England team is full of potential and is not short on talent, they are capable of winning every game they play and yet they so often fail leaving the fans disappointed yet again.

Perfect Day

It all started with a great 90 kilometre ride with my regular crowd and included a fast climb of Helshoogte which was a lot of fun! I'm really enjoying my riding again and it feels good to have lost 8kgs and be strong on the hills again. Hopefully I'll be on top form for the Cape Argus on the 11th of March. I'm really looking forward to it now.

This afternoon I was delighted to be able to watch the Palace game live on local TV and it turned out to be a very good game in which we made the Hammers look distinctly average. I guess it wasn't quite a perfect day though as we only managed a draw.

I love it when England play because it allows the rest of the English footballing fraternity know what it's like being a Palace fan. You have a great team with brilliant potential, you should win every game and play your opponents off the field and yet somehow you manage to make it all look like really hard work and have very little to show for your endeavours. That's what it's like being a Palace fan, but as Palace fan I got used to that a long time ago. Sadly for the rest of the England fans the reality may just be dawning.

Despite Rooney et al's best efforts to ruin our amazing evening they thankfully failed in their quest. Yes the game was a turgid affair and we made the Algerians look good but it was still an amazing vibe and the Cape Town stadium still impresses and it was great to share the evening with our mates Jo and Mark!

I'm not really sure how to begin to describe the feelings from my first ever World Cup experience, it really was a stunning event and for me, only the first of six and maybe even seven of the Cape Town games.

From having stressed about the best way to get to the game and what time to set off Michael & I decided to go with Daniel and Zelda (Daniel leads Grace Community Church) to Grand West and get the park n ride shuttle from there and it all went perfectly though a bit of a hiccup on the way home as the promised bus never materialised and we had to take the train which was interesting!
30 Jun 202012 Jun 2010

Palace R.I.P.

Palace went into administration last night less than 24 hours before their date with the tax man at the High Court to settle a winding up order over a 1.2M unpaid tax bill. We already had a transfer embargo slapped on us over unpaid fees to other clubs. Not that that really had much impact as we couldn't afford to bring any new players in anyway.

The Croydon Guardian is running a Decade Review of Palace and their goings on. Some of it is quite amusing some of it quite depressing, but that's part and parcel of life as a Palace fan.

The highs include Shipperley's goal against West Ham in the play-off final securing promotion to the Premiership. Our Five-nil drubbing of Brighton at Selhurst. Being rescued from administration by Simon Jordan (you know when you've been tangoed!) and most definitely signing AJ (Andy Johnson) from Birmingham as part of the deal selling Clinton Morrison to them. They must have regretted every second of selling AJ!

The lows include our immediate relegation from the Premiership the following season, being sent down by a goal from Charlton Pathetic. However the lowest point by far was spending two long and miserable years in administration contemplating life with non-league status. Fraught times indeed!

The new football season begins in August with the full fixture list being published today. As ever no-one is allowed to publish any fixture list because of some outdated and immoral arrangement between the FA, Football League and a data company. Anyway, there are ways around the draconian arrangement such as visiting the BBC who have a license to publish them.

Surprise!

On Thursday Paula flew to Blighty for a very well earned and well deserved break on her own. Truth be told it was payback for the Cape Epic (in case you missed what that was all about, click here)

Much subterfuge went into planning it especially as we wanted her trip to coincide with the birthday celebrations for Stephen's 50th and Susannah's 18th, so many thanks to Sal for helping with the scheming!

I've not been posting Palace Results this season for a few reasons, but mainly because I've been too busy. So, to make amends here's Neil Warnock's review of Palace in 2008.

Best Match - The 5-0 defeat of Burnley at Selhurst Park. That was special because we had to get the win to get in the play-offs and it turned into a special afternoon and night time. We worked so hard to get there from the start we had.

Worst Match - The 2-1 defeat to Bristol City in the first leg of play-offs at Selhurst. I thought we should have won the game if we played like we could. The heat and the kick off time were against us and to equalise but lose concentration and concede straight after made it very difficult for us in the second leg.

Today was a proud day for me as I took Joel to watch Palace at home. Grandad was chauffer for the afternoon and we had a great time. Joel coped brilliantly and really enjoyed himself, he even got the hang of the fact that we were shouting for the Eagles & Palace. Enjoy the photos below...

Jose Mourinho maybe in talks with Palace Chairman Simon Jordan after leaving Chelsea by mutual consent.

Jose told the sun earlier in the year, 'London is perfect. My family is happy living here.

'So although you can never predict what will happen in football, I would like to be in London by 2012.

'If it is not working at Chelsea, then Crystal Palace or somebody else.

'London is a special city because it has won the right and the privilege to host the Olympic Games.

A Proud Moment!

There comes a time in a Father's life when his pride in his kids knows no bounds. Today was close to one of those moments when Joel donned his first Palace shirt. This brought a tear to my eye.

We got a few looks in church as Dad was also in his Palace shirt (a birthday present from Jo) so we were resplendent in our 'red & blue'.

That's my boy!