The longest week in a Palace fans life…well mine anyway

Article by e-Crystal Palace Correspondent William Britton

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Crystal Palace 3, West Brom 1. What a day that was for any Palace fan across the World. After the frantic last day of the transfer window which saw us bring in 4 new players and secure a permanent deal for a current player who was already on loan was a joyous day. Big name stars were finally coming to Palace, Joe Ledley, Scott Dann, Wayne Hennessey and the player who's name has been on the lips of every Championship fan, Thomas Ince. I for one thought that this was the most crucial day of our season so far, yes we’ve had big wins against teams around us including Hull, West Ham and Cardiff but having a proven Premier League manager at the helm meant that we were finally able to bring in the calibre of players that will help the rest of the squad to keep Crystal Palace in the Premier League, and what an introduction they had on the first team. Thomas Ince and Joe Ledley getting their names onto the scoresheet and Scott Dann looking very solid in defence (however Pulis’s decision to drop Danny Gaddidon did not sit well with certain Palace fans). With the whole of Selhurst Park rocking after that result we were all thoroughly excited to see what the new players and the current squad could do up against a strong Premier League team in the outfit of Everton.

Waking up on Wednesday 12th February, I was like a child at Christmas, giddy with excitement with the thought of going to Goodison Park and see the new and old boys strut their stuff in front of the likes of Leighton Baines, Kevin Mirallas and Lacina Traore. As I live in York the train would take me across the Pennines and into Manchester before shooting off to Liverpool. However this was going to be a long day, “RED WEATHER WARNING OVER LIVERPOOL” the Met Office issued on their website. This led to the game being called off 30 minutes before kick off as I was 2 minutes away from Goodison Park on a bus from the city centre. Living in this great country, these things do happen and we all do it for the love of our football team. Trains were cancelled left, right and centre and a night in Liverpool was assured along with many other Crystal Palace and Everton fans that had made the journey from across the World it seemed. Eventually returning home the next day, I had time to think about what had happened to us the night before and what was to come next…Manchester United at home.

As soon as the World was told about David Moyes becoming the new manager of Manchester United, everyone had their suspicions about whether he would be able to fill Sir Alex’s boots or not. 26 games in and Manchester United lie 7th in the table with 12 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses, something of which Sir Alex cannot be too pleased. Moyes’s team has faltered against some of the struggling teams amongst which are Stoke, Sunderland (Capital One Cup) and Fulham, teams you would have seen Sir Alex’s team destroying. This certainly gives me and a number of Palace fans a huge sense of optimism going into the game on Saturday. Selhurst Park is never an easy place to come too because of how intimidating we make it and with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Robin Van Persie and Juan Mata , players who are used to the ‘big stages’ of Old Trafford, the Emirates and Anfield will surely not be looking forward to a trip to ‘Coliseum Selhurst’ on a cold Saturday night in South East London.

Crystal Palace come into the game with a long break from football under their belts and a near full strength team with a small doubt over Cameron Jerome (back strain). With Pulis changing things about for the last game against West Brom due to the new players I cannot see him changing the line up too much because of how well the new players performed. The front 4 of Puncheon, Ince, Bolasie and Chamakh would be deadly against a Manchester United defence that seems to change every week and never really looks completely comfortable. With the likes of Mile Jedinak, Damien Delaney and Scott Dann, the threat of Mata, Rooney and RVP aren’t as scary as some would believe. They have the strength and resilience to battle with these European stars and put them out of their comfort zones completely. Ward and possibly Ledley will be the full backs for this game and one which they will both be thriving on, especially Ward who will presumably be coming up against Ashley Young who will not be a crowd favourite on Saturday as his blatant dive back in September got Manchester United and penalty as Kagisho Dikgacoi saw red for what was the start of Young’s diving career for Manchester United just for this season.

I think I’m possibly running with my heart rather than my head with this game but my prediction for this game is going to be 1-0 to Crystal Palace.

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