So we were standing outside the Wetherspoons at Thornton Heath (South London al fresco) drinking the good stuff and feeling nervous about the game. Well except for one young lad who had more than contributed his fair share to the South London beer economy. With a pint in each hand I asked him how he’d got the time off school. With two policemen just a few yards away he shouted in a voice probably heard in Sunderland “it’s study leave for me GCSEs”. Right, pleased that’s cleared up. He posts on the message board on this site so I won’t embarrass him by identifying him (let’s just call him “The Breen Mac*ine”).
Anyway we were talking about what would be a good result. Bearing in mind away goals don’t count now in the play-offs, the general consensus was that anything from a one goal deficit or better would be OK. While a defeat never seems great I’m going to stick to what the pre-match me thought. This is a good result – we can definitely turn this lot over at the SoL.
As most of you who weren’t there will have seen it on the telly I’m not going to linger over details. First half we kept it tight and had a couple of decent chances. Certainly we were happy to cheer the lads off at half-time (actually the support was topper throughout). Only black mark for me was Macateer, who managed to get booked but could have been done for a large number of niggling challenges. I know he’s just trying to give 100% but he’s not going to help the cause if he let’s us get into the position of having 10 men. Mick thought the same because he took him off for the second half.
Second half was probably a corker for the neutrals (feck ‘em generally mind – we’re not here to entertain them). We got a deserved penalty (shouldn’t their man have been sent off? If he wasn’t the last man, who was? I give up with this rule, I just don’t understand it) when Robinson was brought down. Stewart may have been relatively poor this season but boy can he take penalties. One-nil up and –oh bugga 1-1. They immediately came down our end. Poom I thought was in a poor postion and a looping header went over him and in. Then they got the most ridiculous deflection off Babb to go ahead. Kyle capped off a great performance and a great end of season to get his second in two. But then again pretty much straight away they had a shot that Poom should have held but wriggled away from him.
Some nice points from this game were that the lads didn’t look as leggy as they have in some recent matches. Let’s hope they can keep that up for Monday. Robinson had a canny game and was pushing up to help the attack – something we’ve been crying out for all season. Thornton had a sensible second half (maybe like Byfield he is better off as a sub than a starter). Poom made two mistakes that cost us – two more than he’s sometimes made in a whole month. I hope the big fella’s confidence doesn’t get knocked cos we certainly forgive him for it.
All to play for in the second leg. My last report for this season (even if we get to Cardiff that is a neutral venue not an away match). It’s been a great season. Thanks to Mick and the lads for putting smiles back on our faces and songs in our hearts. Have a great summer and, remember, SING YOUR HEARTS OUI FOR THE LADS.
One post-script. I had thought about not discussing this in a SAFC match report but probably I should. At the end some of their supporters ran onto the pitch. Mildly reprehensible but not the worst thing in the world. What you are entitled to expect though is professional stewarding and policing. There were a pitiful number of stewards at the front of the away stand. There seemed to be no police as far as I could see. There was no attempt to keep the invading fans separate from the away end. As they realised this they came right up to the away end and the inevitable argy-bargy happened. Let me spell it out for Crystal Palace Football Club because, while it is really easy and done in every ground I’ve been in, they clearly don’t understand. You put two lines of stewards/police in front of the away end: one facing the away fans; one facing the pitch. The line facing the pitch moves forward to a position about 20 yards in front to keep invading fans away from the away section. I can only imagine CPFC just didn’t pay for enough stewards and/or police. Certainly there weren’t enough to do this and those there were not very well trained or disciplined. I thought it might be because they were anticipating trouble outside but there were almost no police or stewards out there as well.
We must have some fairness in football in these matters. If this had been Millwall or Birmingham or Cardiff the authorities would come down on them very hard. Play-off matches are some of the most tense in football and need appropriate stewarding and policing. I can only assume CPFC were trying to do it on the cheap. The club should be punished for this. I’m not asking for us to get any advantage (e.g. in the match at the SoL). But at least one match next season Palace should have to play a game behind closed doors. If the authorities allow them to get away with this then why should any club feel the need to spend the money that Palace weren’t prepared to?