11 years of top flight football
Hi all, hope you all had a great summer and like me are looking forward to another season in the Premier League.
If you had told me when I started supporting Palace that we would be here in the top division for an 11th season in a row, I don't think I would have believed you.
I can remember when we where a yo-yo team being promoted one year then relegated the next. How times have changed. Thank you Steve Parish and associates for the stability you have brought to the club.
So down to the football, it was a relief to see both Olise and Eze stay with us. After seeing Jefferson Lerma play I'm thinking he was a very shrewd signing and I look forward to seeing a lot more of him. I think his link up play with Doucoure is excellent. As for our other signings I don't really know anything about Matheus Franca but lets hope he turns out to be good. Of course we also signed Dean Henderson, a great keeper and Rob Holding, a very good defender. I'm looking forward to seeing them both.
So my first trip back to Selhurst was the friendly against Lyon. It didn't quite have the new season buzz but it was great just to be back. We won 2-0 which is always good and what a great goal by Schlupp. He doesn't get many.
We still had a couple of weeks to wait for our first home game of the season.
It was off to Sheffield United for our first game of the season, I decided to drive there and thanks must go to Rhianna for sorting out parking, which was really easy. I ended up parking only 50 yards from the gate.
The game started with some great work by Palace who had most of the possession. With Lerma winning nearly every aerial battle he was involved in and really connecting well with Doucoure. It's no wonder he won Man of the Match.
Despite us having most of the play and Eze creating a few opportunities the first half ended goalless. However, we came out for the second half and continued our dominance which paid off in the 49th minute. After some good team work allowed Edouard to get his first goal of the season, here's hoping for lots more. However despite all of our dominance and excellent play the game ended at only 1-0 with 3 points coming back to South London.
Next up our first home game was against Arsenal. This was chosen for Sky TV live broadcast so was played on the Monday night.
I really thought we played a very good defensive first half and besides Arsenal having most of the possession we managed to stop them from scoring and went in at half time 0-0.
The second half continued in much the same vein although I thought we stepped up a bit and got a bit more of the ball than in the first 45 minutes.
Of course, as you may all be aware there were two talking points that came in the second half, the first being the penalty decision in Arsenal's favour. Whether or not this should have stood was very debatable, my honest opinion is if that was a penalty, then Eze's claim for one should have been given as well.
The second talking point was the red card, although Arsenal were wasting a lot of time and the new rules came into effect here, I think the wrong man was booked. So losing by a single goal, scored from the contoversial penalty kick, we were left quite disappointed as I think we at least deserved a draw.
Never mind onwards and upwards, as they say.
Up next was the short trip to Brentford which unfortunately I didnt go to although I did listen to it on the radio. I must congratulate those fans that did go as they really made themselves heard. From what I heard and from looking at the stats we had 15 shots on goal, 5 on target and they had 12 shots only 1 of which was on target, which they scored from. This just goes to show we really do need to be more clinical in front of goal. It ended with another disappointing draw where really we should of come away with all 3 points.
Finally we saw August out with a long trip away to Plymouth in the EFL Cup. I cant remember the last time I visited there, so seeing as I had a friend who lives not far from the ground, I decided to take the opportunity and stay with them for a couple of days and take in the match.
As for the game what can you say, the first half we were absolutely dire and went behind, going into the break 1-0 down. In fact it was so bad that at half time some fans were singing “Sack the board" and "Parish out” which I thought was totally unacceptable, considering where we were when he took over.
I really thought Roy would make a couple of changes at half time, but he didn't. Then on 46 mins Plymouth went 2-0 up with a great strike from Cundle and I honestly thought that was that.
But then on 55 mins Roy did change things. Bringing off Rak Saki, Riedewald and Ahamada for Schlupp, Eze and Ayew which completely turned the game around. Suddenly Plymouth could not handle us and within 5 minutes of the change we were 3-2 up with goals from Edouard and 2 from Mateta. Twenty minutes later Mateta would complete his hat trick, the first scored by a Palace player since Dwight Gayle 8 years ago. Of course, those same fans were all of a sudden singing a different tune and we came away winning 4-2. So we're through to the next round, lets see what September brings.
Be Loud
Be Proud
Be Palace
Dave May
Chairman CPFC DSA
