That was a special result for Palace last weekend as the side battled well against an in-form Tottenham side.
Martin Kelly scored in first half stoppage time with a well taken goal, but what was even more special was the wall of noise generated from the South Stand. Around 5,000 Palace fans made the short trip from South to North London to witness a Palace side which looked to be over their Premier League struggles.
When Kelly’s shot hit the back of the net, me along with the rest of the travelling Palace clan went berserk. It was absolute carnage in row seven of the South Stand, a scene that will live with me for a long time.
I stumbled out of White Hart Lane with a sore shoulder and half a voice but let me be honest, I would not have had it any other way when Palace are involved.
We now take on Reading away in the quarter finals, which to some might seem an easy draw, but I completely disagree. It is going to be tough, and we have to make sure we are on the top of our game. This season the cup has presented us with a chance to get to at least the semi final stage and we cannot pass up the opportunity.
As we know our league form of late has not been good enough, but there have been plenty of reasons for that. Firstly, we have just not been good enough to collect vital wins. Secondly, the injuries to key personnel have really hampered our attacking style.
I really feel with that win last weekend, and now with an away game at West Bromwich Albion who are really struggling at the moment with everything that has gone on in the past week, its is the perfect time to travel up to the Midlands and get a solid result.
One thing that should bring us more impetus in games is the return of Yannick Bolasie. The fan favourite came on in the last fifteen minutes of the Spurs clash, and looked like he had never been away with some terrific surging runs.
He even set up Connor Wickham, but the former Sunderland man could not stay onside and the goal was chalked off but it was extremely promising to see what potentially Emmanuel Adebayor, Wickham, Wilfried Zaha, and Bolasie could bring to the party in the remaining games of the season.
We all know the qualities of Bolasie. We have raved here on TEB on plenty of occasions just how the DR Congo international transforms the side. When he was out injured we sorely missed his creative flair. Zaha burdened the load tremendously but it was hard for him at times.
We are likely to see more of Bolasie in our trip to the Hawthorns, and if he helps the team to another important three points, I will be forever singing his famous song around my flat on Saturday evening.
I have felt quite sorry for Kelly this year, he has not seen much game time because of Pape Souare’s impressive showings, but he is the ultimate professional looking in from the outside. Last Sunday he produced an assured performance. Particularly in the first half, a lot of the Spurs attacking play was directed towards Zaha and Kelly on the left, and I thought the former Liverpool man dealt well with the barrage.
While Joel Ward and Souare are our first choice full backs, it has been said a few times before on TEB that Kelly could be a future centre half for us. Of course, we have Damien Delaney and Scott Dann occupying those roles at the moment, the admiration and love I have for them is sometimes stronger than the love I have for my brother!
With Delaney being thirty-four, we cannot look past the fact that there might be a change in our defensive line up in the future. If I had my way Kelly would be the obvious choice.
Well there you have it folks, my ramble is over for another week. Feel free to have a browse of the site for plenty of other great content. I am hoping to pen my usual article next week with a joyous attitude as Palace will hopefully do one over on our old boss Tony Pulis.
