Christmas is here.
We fought it in the lead up to Halloween, when London’s first littering’s of Christmas cheer were thrown out by shops looking to capitalise on the commercial hysteria.
We gradually came to accept it was getting closer as November came and went. Still not quite happy with the fact the barman at your local cheekily popped ‘Fairytale of New York‘ on as the last song of the night. But getting there.
People have differing opinions on when you can accept that Christmas is here, or embrace the garish tinsel that garnishes office computer screens all over the country.
For football fans, the Christmas period is heralded in when the draw for the FA Cup third round is made. Just a shame they did not think to use baubles rather than the more favoured numbered balls to really kick off the Christmas period.
Much is talked about the importance of the football period over the next few weeks. How fixture congestion will impact teams with less squad depth than their more affluent counterparts. How a poor run of form can plummet a team into a relegation battle for the rest of the season. If you thought the post Christmas gloom was bad when you got back to work, try dealing with the reality that the turkey you devoured on Christmas Day could have performed better than some of your players who helped you sink to eighteenth from eleventh in a few short weeks!
Festive football is a wonderful spectacle in England. Cram a game in where possible, minimise recovery time, push teams to the absolute limit and see how they respond. Surely that is what sport is all about, what makes it great?
While it does often lend itself to hyperbole, there is a particular significance attached to it from a Palace perspective. In recent years, it has been a clear catalyst for some of our most illustrious moments.
TEB fondly recalls the marauding nature with which Palace turned themselves from relegation fodder under the still loved Steve Kember, to playoff victors under Iain Dowie. Dowie was appointed on the 22nd of December 2003 losing his first game in charge at home to Millwall. With things looking ominous, Dowie’s brand of ‘bouncebackabilty saw the side lose just four of their next twenty-one games. The Premier League beckoned.
The remarkable run of form that season triggered over Christmas was very much mirrored in a positive change catalyst at the same time last season. In miserable form and staring down the barrel under Palace’s very own version of ‘Comical Ali‘ in Neil Warnock, Super Alan Pardew’s arrival injected Christmas magic into a side that went on to comfortably and clinically climb back up the table. It was not for the first time in the Premier League either, as the work Tony Pulis had done over Christmas the season before following his appointment laid the foundations for the lofty heights we find find Palace in now.
This year? A conundrum. Palace are flying. Riding a wave of optimism and confidence that encircles the fans, we have now almost come to expect that things will continue to improve. That there is one more Christmas spark left in this team to ignite another momentous Premier League year.
Perhaps that spark will be aided by the Holmesdale Fanatics, who themselves came to life ten years ago as Christmas beckoned. An altogether Palace version of the fabled Christmas nativity scene, although there are no confirmed reports of Jesus himself being a member of the HF.
It seems like this is the first Christmas for a number of years where many Palace fans are entering with contentment. Palace are better financially, better in the boardroom, better in the dugout and better on the pitch than they have been in living memory.
What do the gang at TEB want this Christmas, you ask?
Nothing at all.
We just do not want to wake up and have this dream end. It is far too exciting.
