A second half appearance for Palace against Swansea City was not enough to prevent young striker Patrick Bamford from returning to his parent club Chelsea.
The fact that he had a glorious chance to seal all three points for the Eagles but fired straight at the keeper may have been the final straw if it was a club decision to terminate the season long loan deal. Instead, Bamford announced to the media after the game that it was his choice to leave and return to Stamford Bridge after a frustrating few months in South London.
A hat-trick against non-league Bromley was the highlight in what was deemed as a successful pre-season for Bamford which suggested more of the same was to come during the 2015/16 Premier League season. He made his Premier League debut for Palace against Arsenal in August replacing James McArthur late on in the game.
That appearance in the loss at home to the Gunners was followed up by four more from the bench in the Premier League, including the one against Swansea. However, he did start two games in the League Cup against Shrewsbury Town at home and Manchester City away but substituted in both without scoring.
Bamford joined Nottingham Forest at the age of eight years old and made two first team appearances in the 2011/12 season before moving to Chelsea on a five year deal for £1.5 million. He has yet to make a full appearance for the Stamford Bridge side but has enjoyed loan spells at MK Dons (38 apps, 18 goals), Derby County (21 apps, 8 goals) and Middlesbrough (39 apps, 17 goals).
The Grantham born striker impressed in each of those loan spells and was named the 2014/15 Football League Championship Player of the Year for his time at Middlesbrough who lost to Norwich City in the play off final. He made one appearance for the Republic of Ireland under 18 side before going on to represent England and under 18, under 19 and under 21 levels.
After showing so much promise at the Riverside Stadium, it is a mystery why his career at Palace never got going. The signing of Connor Wickham was a contributing factor as it became clear that the starting lone striker role was his from the outset. However, even when Wickham had his first spell out through injury, Bamford was not the player called upon to replace him. Instead, Dwight Gayle was favoured and even winger Yannick Bolasie at times.
Perhaps the former Forest player is just not yet ready for the Premier League and needs a loan spell back in the Championship to learn his trade. It is hard to imagine that if Bamford was impressing on the training ground Pardew would not play him.
It looks a lot like the lone striker role at Palace just would not suit him and his style of play. He failed to impress in the two games he started but arguably his best spell was in a twenty minute cameo in a 1-0 loss at Leicester City.
There is no doubt that there is some talent there but watching his performance in that second half against Swansea there was a real lack of desire to take that chance with both hands. You would expect a player to be chomping at the bit to get on the pitch to show what he is made of. From what little we saw of Bamford, that just did not shine through unfortunately but perhaps he is just not that kind of player.
Maybe it was wrong club, wrong time but we can all agree that it did not work out for either party and the deal being cut short is probably for the best.
We move on but would like to wish Patrick all the best for the future.
