Another home shambles…

Many thanks to guest reporter Tony Humphreys of Eagle Pie fame, for stepping into the breech and helping us out again here.

Bloody John Wayne, never there when you need him. Just imagine you’re in the wagon circle, surrounded by screaming Sioux and then a glitter of hope – a lone rider appears on the skyline and everyone cheers until the grizzled old wagon master drawls,, “Prepare to lose your hair, boys, it’s Stuart Green”. Not that I’ve anything special against Stuart Green, but he just about encapsulates all that’s mediocre about this Palace team.

Peter Taylor’s management is beginning to worry me seriously, on two counts. First, his team seems to play to no obvious pattern, with players played out of position and apparently not even aware of a few basic principles of good football, such as the need to run into space and support colleagues. Second, he seems reluctant to play any young players, with Tom Soares the exception, and this seems bizarre for someone much of whose reputation rests on his work with the England Under-21 team; instead we’ve been lumbered with older players who were good enough but never that great anyway.

Plymouth too are composed of journeymen but, crucially, they were journeymen who had been coached to be effective. They will not win the league – they won’t score often enough, for one thing – but they will ruffle a few feathers and have enough team ethic to keep themselves safe easily enough. Crucially, they also have a bit of pace. Palace were rarely allowed to rest on the ball, with Gary Borrowdale suffering in particular, always being harried by at least two opponents, and unable to provide any sort of service to those in front of him, though this was also hindered by the statuesque nature of most of our players. When Plymouth attacked they did so with purpose, often breaking at speed and in numbers, though their lack of a true cutting edge threatened to negate all their willingness. By contrast, Palace were laboured, with only an occasional spark from Soares or Freedman livening things up. Having said that, the first half was pretty even, Palace’s one chance coming from a decent pass from Borrowdale which put Morrison clear only for the shot to be hit straight at the goalkeeper. As half-time drew near, Plymouth broke away to threaten, with the lively Ebanks-Blake testing Kiraly and then helping set up the goal: Kiraly watched as a soft effort screwed across goal, then rebounded from the far post to Darren Ward who tried a casual pass when a hoof might have been a better option, only for the lumbering Chadwick to stick out a foot to block the ball and then crash an easy shot into an empty net.

At least Taylor is not afraid to make early changes if things aren’t going to plan and Palace came out for the second half with Lawrence moving into midfield to replace the ineffective Fletcher, Butterfield replacing him at right back, and Kuqi replacing Marco Reich, who had done some good things, but clearly not enough. For a time things improved and the pace was upped. Kuqi won a few balls, made a few decent lay-offs and had a shot blocked but still only does a half-decent impression of a professional footballer. Freedman and Soares continued to threaten briefly to burst into life before settling back into anonymity but really Plymouth were comfortable and were able to knock the ball around pretty much as they pleased for the last half-hour. To be honest I lost interest with some time to go and seriously considered asking Carol, who sits in front, whether I could borrow her Sudoku book. Yep, it was that good.

At Selhurst, the end was greeted with predictable boos but the BBS was surprisingly non-violent in its reaction. There were one or two calls of “Taylor out!” but there was almost an air of resignation about the comments, many of the “This is Palace, what do you expect?” type. Well, that’s fair enough. We haven’t got a divine right to beat the likes of Plymouth, even if it is annoying when so-called smaller clubs leave us with egg on our faces. I just wish we’d lose with a bit more style and at least look as if we cared.

Palace: Kiraly, Lawrence, Ward (Green 73), Cort,Borrowdale, Kennedy, Soares, Fletcher (Butterfield 46),Reich (Kuqi 46), Freedman, Morrison. Subs Not Used: Flinders, Watson.

Booked: Lawrence, Kennedy.

Plymouth: McCormick, Doumbe, Seip, Connolly, Capaldi, Nalis,Wotton, Norris, Buzsaky (Sawyer 82), Ebanks-Blake (Samba 79),Chadwick (Summerfield 73). Subs Not Used: Larrieu, Djordjic.

Goals: Chadwick 39.

Att: 17,084
Ref: M Russell (Hertfordshire).


Posted by neil