It has been a better week for Palace fans, we saw our side earn a hard fought point away at Swansea last week and with players returning, everyone is optimistic that we can collect three points against Watford.
The performance last week was by no means perfect, but we needed any sort of points, even if it was just the one.
The first half looked like we were going to come away with none, it was as bad as I have seen Palace play and I was worried that the game was going to get away from us. Due to injuries, Alan Pardew had to shuffle his team around and some fringe players got the chance to show their worth. The exciting news was that an academy player got their long awaited Premier League debut.
It was quite a cameo from Hiram Boateng after he replaced Yohan Cabaye. He nearly scored to give us all three points. There is a nice article on the academy set-ups in English football written by my TEB colleague Tom Neal, so go and check that out.
There are a few things I want to cover in this latest edition of Red And Blue Report. Firstly who will get the nod up front this weekend. Will it be Connor Wickham or Emmanuel Adebayor? Then something which has gripped the football fan base. Ticket tickets. It has everyone talking, and because it is such an important issue and I feel it has to be discussed.
Starting with matters on the pitch, what does Pardew go with? Wickham or Adebayor?
It is quite a conundrum, one that I would struggle to figure out but speaking to my editor at the Bournemouth game, he felt Wickham is perfect for the system we play. Coming off the back of a three game suspension, and also being heavily fined by Pardew for that elbow, the former Sunderland man will be itching to get out on the pitch.
In all honestly he has not set Palace alight just yet, he has not scored from open play but in saying that, some of his performances have been very good, especially in the rout of Newcastle United before Christmas. Then again we have a top class striker in the shape of Adebayor, who I am still a little unconvinced about but I will save that article for another day.
The former Tottenham man had half an hour against Bournemouth, and then he played the majority of the game at Swansea. So, slowly but surely the cobwebs are being blown out, so more game time this weekend could do him the world of good.
Personally I would probably opt for Adebayor. It is the type of game where we could see him get off the mark ahead of facing Tottenham in the FA Cup next weekend, it could be his time to shine on his return to his old club.
Whatever Pardew opts for, I am just grateful we are starting to see some of our firepower back in the squad, and boy have we missed it!
Ticket prices are a lot more serious and affect the whole football community, The astonishing rise of some ticket prices is difficult to get your head round.
Liverpool have obviously been in the heat of the storm this week when they announced some tickets would cost punters £77. Yesterday they scrapped that and said the cheapest ticket would now be £59, and there would be no category allocation on games, just like we have at Palace.
On the notion of category games, I think Palace should scrap it too. I do not see the point. It stops people seeing the big games having to commit to buy another ticket for another game just bumps the price up even more.
I think it would be great if all the Premier League clubs scrapped category allocation on games altogether and just kept them all the same. It would certainly make my life a lot easier trying to get to certain games.
As a student I have to watch my finances. At the moment I am a gold member and I do believe it is good value for money, except the loyalty points which I cannot quite figure out. Buying a club top gives you more points than buying a match ticket!
The last game I went to was Bournemouth last week. That was £21 and factoring in travel costs and refreshments it totals about £35 every game. If the club decided to bump up student tickets say an extra £7 or £8 or so I would find it extremely difficult to watch the club I love.
I truly believe it is in the best interests for fans, the club, and even the FA to help sort out the prices of tickets, considering this new television deal which will come into place next season.
As the Football Supporters Federation campaign rightly says, twenty is plenty.
