You would never expect a footballer to look as nervous in a football shirt as Jason Puncheon did on revealing the away kit for next season at the end of season awards.
The cheeky chappy was trying to match the stance and focus of Scott Dann but was certainly unable to pull it off (especially when it was noticed and mocked by those chatting about the shirts) and shared with the world as to why he is not a defender.
You can almost forgive Wayne Hennessey standing around awkwardly to give out an award because he barely gets time on the pitch let alone in the spotlight. Though he did have an outfit of a real grown man taking life seriously. He really did come across as a very Welsh keeper but perhaps that is what he needed to do to remind Alan Pardew of his existence and ability not to drop things.
Clearly pulling the short straw did something special to them this weekend. Incredible stuff from them both at Anfield and I must admit that perhaps I made a judgement on Hennessey a little too quickly. His height means it is more difficult for him to justify falling to the ground on catching the ball and therefore he perhaps does not waste enough time when we could do with running the clock down! His performance was better than I could have ever expected.
Sadly, such luck did not rub off on Yannick Bolasie who, on saying he wanted to score more goals, came incredibly close but was, as is painfully too common, not close enough.
There was something about the performance this weekend against Liverpool that seemed to suggest Pardew is keen to explore options but also that the players were alive and ready to finish the last bit of the season on a real high note.
Perhaps the players were motivated by the awards night and being close to fans but this cannot be true because they should know we are behind them every single step of the way.
It is hard to believe with all these ups and downs that the end of the season is finally here. For a long while it seemed to just crawl on by and become increasingly painful but now time is flying and even when things have not gone perfectly, it has still been enjoyable (mostly) to watch.
Now the season is nearly over, I can feel a little hole of sadness developing within me.
Luckily, I have the Women’s World Cup to focus on and the rest of domestic female football too but it will not quite fill the Crystal Palace void. However, Julian Speroni’s testimonial and the beer festival is sure to help for a little while.
I will be back to tell you my thoughts on the season in the coming weeks but until then keep the red and blue flag flying high over the glory that is South London’s SE25.
Let us all hope our win this weekend was not just a fluke and we can pull off a spectacular end to the season against Swansea City.
