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Saturday 26th August. Oh no, not again! I think Crystal Palace must have read the Watford script, and once again our defensive frailties have been exposed around the half-time interval. In three league matches on the trot we have conceded a goal just before the interval followed by a second in the earlier stages of the second half. It was frustrating against Watford because we played well enough to have won, against Sheffield Wednesday we were already three goals up and it made for an exciting game, but against Palace we were inept. The team was pretty much the one which finished against Sheffield Wednesday the previous Saturday with Jon Dyson replacing Thomas Heary as right back, although I’m not quite sure why as the young Irishman didn’t even feature in the 16 on duty. Perhaps he was injured. Scott Sellars occupied the Midfield role usually filled by Dean Gorré, whilst Martin Smith returned to partner Clyde Wijnhard up front with Delroy Facey returning to the subs bench. The game started with Town dominating proceedings without actually looking particularly in control, and Wijnhard’s woeful form continued as he failed to test the Palace keeper but managed to keep the ball boys busy. During this spell Crystal Palace were actually playing with a man short after an early head injury to Simon Rodger who left the field to be stitched back together although Town failed to make the numerical advantage count. We did, however, manage to take a fortuitous lead in the 24th minute. Chris Lucketti found himself in an unaccustomed left wingback position normally occupied by Jamie Vincent and he drove in a cross from near the left touchline. Clyde Wijnhard stooped as if to head the ball but completely missed (which is par for the course at the moment), but it deceived the keeper who could only helplessly watch as the ball carried on and hit the back of the net. I think that we all expected that normal service would now be resumed and we could look forward to some of the scintillating play of the previous week and perhaps goal glut of last season, but it never happened. As the half progressed Crystal Palace began to increase their involvement in the game although there were few quality chances created by either side yet as the end of the half approached you could sense that many eyes were anxiously looking towards the electronic clock behind the away fans almost expecting Town to concede just before the break. They did! Clinton Morrison who had been troublesome to the Town defence all afternoon whipped in a cross from the left and Julian Gray did the rest, heading in from close range. You could almost tangibly feel the slump in the frame of mind of the home fans as the heads of the Town players visibly dropped. I don’t know what Steve Bruce says to his players whilst they are sucking their oranges during the break, but once again they looked severely uninspired as the second half resumed with Palace well on top. Could Town survive? No. In the 51st minute former Spurs and Liverpool defender Neil Ruddock gave the visitors a 2-1 lead powerfully heading in a Jamie Pollock cross from the right. A sense of gloom seemed to pervade the crowd to match the wet and gloomy weather we seem to have suffered all summer long. Town had a couple of chances to square matters with a Sellars volley being saved brilliantly by Stuart Taylor in the 57th minute, and the Palace keeper saved well again from a Kenny Irons free kick from the edge of the box 10 minutes later. Town seemed to be missing some of the midfield craft of Dean Gorré as well as the ball holding skills of Kevin Gallen and lacked any real penetration into the Palace half of the pitch. It could have been worse still, when Irons got into a muddle whilst defending and a lazy piece of work saw him easily dispossessed and as he tried to retrieve the situation he clumsily brought Leon McKenzie down in the box and the referee awarded a penalty kick. The award seemed a little bit harsh but thankfully it was a poor penalty and Hayden Mullins weak effort was well read by Nico Vaesen and he dived to his right to smother the ball. Bruce tried to spice up the attack by bringing on David Beresford for Scott Sellars in the 62nd minute, Chris Hay for Jamie Vincent in the 76th and finally Delroy Facey for the ineffective Kenny Irons after 81 minutes. This was all to no avail however, as the more congested Town’s front line looked, the less likely it seemed that Town could score even if they played until midnight. At the other end the Eagles could have increased Town’s woes as Vaesen was forced to save well at the feet of Tommy Black and then right at the end of the game Leon McKenzie contrived to miss an open goal following a breakdown of communication between Vaesen and Armstrong. Town were quite frankly poor, and unless there is an immediate improvement, they are more likely to be looking at division 2 football next season rather than the glory of the premier league. With a tricky away game against Stockport on Bank holiday Monday in just two days time they’ll have to buck up their ideas or I’ll suffer even more jibes from the landlord of my local pub who happens to be a Barnsley fan. The televised clash against Nottingham Forest on Sunday week has been postponed due (I believe) to international call-ups. These absentees are presumably all from the opposition, because none of Town’s squad are good enough at the moment to be selected by even Liechtenstein, but at least it might give us a little breathing space to try to clear some of our injuries.
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All words and thoughts by Chris except where stated.
A big thank you to Machala for putting up with me doing this and Ian for his support and my Mum for her proof reading.
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