Despite my own protestations to the contrary, I am assured by my nearest and dearest that I am a grumpy so-and-so.
For reasons that are nothing to do with Palace, it has not been a great week, so just this once*, I am going to share my grumpiness with you.
Tonight we welcome Sunderland to Selhurst Park. It is our first evening home league game of the season, and we all love an evening game at Selhurst.
Having said that the only reason we have an evening game this week is due to the quirks of the television contract.
We are used to the Championship where everyone has to play eight to ten midweek games and we and the other twenty-three clubs are all in it together.
However, tonight’s game is contrived.
Many, many years ago, long before the greatest addition to Monday night telly, Only Connect was conceived, BskyB (yes them with the ‘squarials’) decided that Monday Night was football night.
This decision was made for a couple of reasons. One was to persuade football fans to watch football on telly at any old time (other than 3pm on a Saturday afternoon). The second was because Monday Night Football was and remains an institution in the US.
Let’s ignore the obvious point that Monday Night Football in the US is about American Football. The issue I have that there is no tradition of away supporters in American Football.
With the growth of cable and satellite television and the proliferation of sport on television, we have adjusted our habits and we will watch (our) football any old time now.
But, I still do not think Monday Night Football has worked over here. It is best known for Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher’s review of the weekend football, and their analysis is excellent.
But too often, the football that follows Gary and Jamie is often an anti-climax. It is best to switch over to Victoria Coren and to take on her almost impossible quiz.
Tonight’s game is a perfect example of the problem.
Monday night games where away fans have to travel long distances simply do not generate the same atmosphere as a normal game **
When a club like Sunderland are visiting, I expect a good size and vociferous support. Even tonight I know there will be a committed and loyal support, despite having to put up with Uncle Sam for the foreseeable future.
I want to hear Sunderland fans celebrating Alan Pardew’s record in the Tyne-Wear derby and offering their appreciation of Conor Wickham’s transfer to a club they think is beneath them.
But not for too long!
I want to join in with and enjoy our response to the away fans’ racket and the game to kick off in the raucous atmosphere that I think defines Palace’s revival since 2010.
Tonight, however, I know that the atmosphere, from the Whitehorse end of the Arthur Wait will not be as good as a Saturday afternoon.
A quick geography lesson in passing, although I am sure you know this. It is a very long way from Croydon to Sunderland.
Far too long in my opinion if a game ends at 10pm on a Monday night.
It is not as far as the epic trip from Carlisle to Plymouth, that the Carlisle fans had to do one Tuesday at the start of the season. If you have not read the wonderful Iain MacIntosh’s account of his trip on the coach there and back with the fans, you must do so.
But it is still a lengthy old journey.
From my personal experience you need a fast car, a large CD collection, lots of caffeine, and a huge amount of patience, as you stare into miles and miles of dull, dark Lincolnshire countryside.
The North-East is a beautiful part of the country, I assure you, but not at its best at 3am in the morning if you have to get up for work in a few hours time.
If it is written into the television contract that you cannot show games at 3pm on a Saturday, surely you can adjust the contract so that no away fans have to go on such a daft journey at the start of the working week.
The football calendar is ‘adjusted‘ so that there are no particularly anti-social journeys on Boxing Day or New Year’s Day, while at the same time ensuring that local rivalries requiring extra police presence – and any Palace fan with an understanding of history knows what that means – are not permitted either.
Surely a similar principle can be applied for Monday Night Football, where the maximum journey time home for away fans is no more than two hours.
Unless Palace are playing, I will be sticking with Only Connect anyway. If I can get a couple of questions right I know that will cheer me up!
*- okay, not once apparently. I may have been grumpy in print before.
** – okay, Crystanbul but I will argue this is an exception that proves the rule.
