Our weekly feature has a new home and writer. Every Tuesday Palace fan and Holmesdale Upper Tier season ticket holder Paul Price will share his thoughts and views. Send us your feedback in the usual way and you can also contact Paul directly on Twitter.
We had an amazing build up to the Spurs game with a lot of excitement, hype and few more signings that can only strengthen our squad for the season ahead. Many of the players may have come in on loan which is not palatable for some but, has been done to protect us from wasting money on expensive players with large wage demands if the worst were to happen at the end of the season. Ultimately, what we have seen yet again is some very shrewd business from Holloway and CPFC2010 in a much shorter period of time than the other Premiership sides have had to shape and model their squads.
Match day one finally arrived against Tottenham with many of the usual suspects writing us off from day one especially against a hugely strengthened Spurs team with around £100 million of new players that would surely stuff Palace in our own back-yard. These “experts” obviously know nothing about Palace, our manager, the board, our team spirit and our togetherness. The double-tier display from the HF was amazing, great to be a part of and show-cased a little bit of what this club is all about to the watching world. It must have been amazing as a Palace player to have walked into that atmosphere on the first day of the season and know that we were all behind them.
The game itself in the first half was a little staged from a Palace perspective. This was to be expected with the chosen formation that was set-up to stifle our opponents, put pressure on the player and ball and ultimately snuff out their creativity and threat. The downside was that we were unable to keep the ball ourselves or put any pressure on the Tottenham goal due to mis-placed passes, poor final ball or what appeared at times to be a complete reluctance to actually deliver the ball into the Tottenham box to the often isolated Wilbraham. However, the game plan appeared to be working pretty well until a controversial penalty was awarded to Tottenham in the 50th minute which in turn was converted by Soldado. This was the game changer and resulted in a triple substitution of Garvan, Wilbs and Dobbie for Chamakh, Joniesta and Super KP in the 66th minute. Suddenly Palace were able to adopt a new style and showed much more class and threat with us unlucky not to steal a draw at the end.
The big positives from week one were the support throughout the game (especially after the goal), the display at the start, the fact that a class (expected top five outfit) had trouble breaking us down, that we actually had a squad that that was capable of adopting a plan B, we fought like warriors on the pitch and showed some real class after the subs came on. We have a squad that is still settling, moulding and growing but there are real green shoots of it all coming together and giving us a good chance of doing well and staying in this league. Despite the loss, many appeared to leave Selhurst happy with what we they had seen on our first outing this season in the Premiership.
Game week two involved an away trip up to the Stoke and the Britannia Stadium. As usual a great following support (around 1850 fans) made its way up North to get behind the mighty Eagles. An excellent first half for Palace was rewarded with a well taken goal from Marouane Chamakh and most Palace fans thought that we may actually go on and secure our first Premiership points. Unfortunately two very poor goals were conceded and we left Stoke on the back of another loss. Yet again, many of the decent fans appeared to be pleased with what they had witnessed. Another good performance from Palace at a very difficult Britannia Stadium.
Since that night we have had Match of the Day pundits claiming that we will really struggle, that we are made up of a team of everybody else’s rejects and that other members of our squad do not have the required experience or are simply not good enough. These comments came from a man who talks the talk but has never walked the walk as a Manager and also another man who moves from club to club spending vast amounts of money and, despite this couldn’t keep his team in the Premiership last year.
We have also seen recent publications from the media gutter-rats saying that Holloway’s job is in question and that he is completely stressed. Firstly, upon reading the article from the Mirror, it was obviously a load of rubbish from the outset. We know our club and I think that we know our owners enough to know that this is just not the way that it performs and goes about business. Holloway has lead our club in his short reign through good times and through bad times and ultimately he was responsible for leading Palace to the Premiership and the rewards that this status brings. To even suggest that he would be sacked after 2 games is ridiculous and also disrespectful to the club, Ian Holloway and us fans too. Before it managed to get out of hand, the rumours were quashed pretty much instantly by Steve Parish on the same night.
“Holloway is completely stressed” says the media
Well of course he is stressed! As pointed out at the top of the article, he has had to strengthen the squad, bring in new players and deal with the media in a very short time. As well as working his socks off (Steve Parrish’s words), he has had to deal with the road-show that is the transfer window whilst getting the team up to speed and competitive for a hard season ahead in a little under three months.
What I personally take from the first two games from a team and squad perspective is that we are indeed good enough, that our players are extremely competitive, hardworking and mentally prepared, that we do urgently need some experience and leadership in the centre of defence and that it is only a matter of time before we pick up some points and move forwards. We are two games down and we have not been smashed by “superior” Premiership clubs. We have actually held our own for large parts of the games and have been unlucky not to get something from either game.
We know how important the fans are to the manager and players especially at Selhurst Park where our stadium rattles and reverberates with the noise from the fans for the full ninety minutes. The away support at Stoke was amazing and we know that this support will be another vial constant this season when Palace are on the road in pushing the lads onwards. This season is going to be a massive challenge for us and I am sure that we will have some really bad times however, I am also certain that we will have some really good times too. What is obvious is that it has never been more important for the good fans of Palace to show unity, get behind the club and support them in everything they do whether we win, draw or lose. It about managing expectations, remembering where we have been, what we have achieved and enjoying every moment for what it is.
“We have a fighting squad that are really going to give this division a bloody good go. We have an excellent Board in CPFC2010 and, with Ian Holloway we have the best man for the job too. All that’s left to do is enjoy the next thirty six Premier League games and see where the CPFC roller-coaster takes us this time.” Paul Price
