One Game at a Time: You’re Only Here for the Pasties
Lundan Cabbies All Star XI reserves (H) August 29th Carabao Cup
To misquote Oscar Wilde “To lose one 95th minute point may be considered misfortune. To lose two (in a row) looks like carelessness”.
After last weeks Televised Late Show with Che Adams, it was, as Birmingham bookended a spectacular away performance in everything bar the thing that counts, the result, with two well worked strikes, as frustrating a result as Argyle are (hopefully) likely to suffer on their return the Championship level.
Arriving in the Midlands, in the case of some of the fan coaches, spectacularly early, and with Randell restored to the midfield in place of the off-wavelength Cundy, Argyle proceeded to deliver a performance that, in the main, was operating as Southampton levels of possession and control. The travesty that, having equalised the opening Hogan salvo from the Blues who scored a good goal after a cross in from the Argyle right, with a sharp Hardie finish in front of the away fans, they did not go on to take all three points was highlighted by a devastatingly fine finish at the end by Jay Stansfield.
Arriving on loan just 48 hours before the game, Stansfield, who is a combative and difficult opponent even without the motivation provided by the tiny minority, but still moronic, fans who think his father’s death from cancer is some kind of “football banter” just because he played for our rivals, scored the kind of dream finish that illogical laws of football would consider inevitable. In some ways the only shock was that the through ball and shot didn’t come from Jutkiewitz and Cosgrove, the two Blues ex Argyle loanees available from the bench.
Big Sam was not called upon to rub salt into the wound of a performance that was worth much more than the nothing it eventually received. The ex-Villa contingent would have felt it doubly hard, especially as KKH and Azaz both contributed mightily. Bluenose Scarr also deserved more alongside new partner Gibson, the player Stansfield eluded.
With some catastrophisers already calculating the potential relegation impact of the two dropped points on the final table, whilst the so-called “green tints“ are enjoying an Argyle team that has more than held its own in terms of possession and control, despite only being five games into a new system and squad, the only other news of note was the alleged agreement of a new loan striker. Rumoured to be, probably, Josh Coburn from Middlesbrough, that will signal the end of our transfer window business, although the impending mad cap last minutes of the transfer window may have some twists and turns in store for the squad composition.
It is of course far too early to draw significant conclusions from the tables as they stand. Last season at roughly the same point QPR were nailed on for the Premier League and Coventry were doomed. Even a cursory glance at the table shows a cushion of eight sides below Argyle, including the Northern powerhouses from last season of Sunderland and Middlesbrough.
Spare a though for Sheffield Wednesday fans though. Having seemingly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at least twice in the last month of last season, and then scraped through a Wembley final to earn promotion, they are pointless and forlorn, a club at war with its ownership after an even later win snatching penalty for Cardiff. Not only that, but their ticket prices are the highest in the division.
Ipswich too finally met their match in the battle of the European Title winners (retired), losing by the odd goal in seven to Leeds, Leeds, Leeds at Portman Road, where the Whites, bolstered by Swansea’s Piroe, and some of their Premiership strikers deigning to make themselves available for selection (as opposed to just being strikers in the more traditional Mick Lynch way) dismantled the Town defence with three goals in nine first half minutes. The Tractor Boys have started well generally, but it will be interesting to see if the fans nerves start to twang as and when Eric ten Hag gets his comeuppance at United (as looked quite likely when two down in four minutes at home to Forest) and rumours start to circulate on McKenna’s availability.
As we go to press the first itchy trigger finger has been pulled, and that ocean of stability, the Valley, will see the first managerial change of the season, as a hundred thousand first sacking betting slips with Ishmael Watford scrawled on them hit the bins nationwide.
Tuesday night’s game is that all too rare occasion when a “big club,” in monetary terms if not in achievement, reputation or crowd size, dusts off the “A2Z of English Football” and then flips the pages westwards, growing ever more concerned at the distances involved, for a tie that looks to them more like a quest for the ring of Mordor than a second round League Cup trip. No giant pasty for the Carabao Cup lads.
This match should be branded the suffix derby, featuring as it does two clubs, whose fans determinedly resist using their “first names”. For both sets of fans this game instantly became Argyle versus Palace.
A sell-out crowd (when isn’t it these days) for the Selhurst massive, famed for their imitation Ultras creating one of the best atmospheres in the Premier League, gives Argyle a chance to, if not giant, then tall dwarf, kill for the first time since Andy Thomas, Mark Fiore, Rhys Wilmot and later Nicky Marker as a goalkeeper inspired a two leg victory over Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang in 1991 in the then romantically named Rumbelows Cup at the same stage.
If Wimbledon were the nouveau arrives of the higher league when Argyle dumped them out 3-0 on aggregate, the contrast could not be more marked as the oldest League club in existence pays a visit to Home Park.
No, not Notts County, as you may have erroneously believed. Apparently, it’s Palace.
Palace have recently announced that following historic research, they are the direct descendent of the amateur Crystal Palace team that played on the grounds of the famed Crystal Palace built in Victorian time, and that they are therefore adopting into their club badge the year of their formation of 1861. This makes them exactly one year older than previously oldest League Club Notts County (and they only scrambled back into the effective fourth division last season).
It is undoubtedly true that not only was there an amateur club called Crystal Palace that played on the old cricket pitch at the Crystal Palace, and then later at various other grounds. A number of the members of this club were also stalwarts of the FA, and they provided the only player, Charles Chenery, who started all the first three official England Internationals.
The club participated in the FA Cup of 1871/2 season, losing in the first ever FA Cup replay in the semi-final, to Royal Engineers. In previous rounds they had twice benefited from the rules that allowed both teams to progress in the event of a draw.
So far, so ancient. The loss of playing rights at the Crystal Palace however was eventually to lead to the extinction of the amateur club, and a new club was constituted in the early years of the twentieth century. It was this version of Crystal Palace that first played Argyle in the Southern League in 1906/7, losing at home and then drawing away 0-0 at Home Park.
The FA have stated that they believe the original club which went into extinction after a season where they played all matches away from home, and the newly constituted club of 1905 are in fact two distinct and separate entitles and recognised both. Palace have redesigned their badge to claim their new (old) history, and, coincidentally I am sure, a neat historical marketing hook.
In fact, Sheffield FC (now playing in Derbyshire) and Cray Wanderers (formed in 1860) are both older clubs, and with Cray Wanderers being local, it means that even being formed in 1861, Palace are not even the oldest club in London.
From those initial forays to the Crystal Palace Ground, followed by Herne Hill and The Nest, Palace eventually alighted at Selhurst Park in 1925, where they have remained ever since. Argyles first visit was a tame five all draw.
Games against Palace have tended to come in clumps when the clubs fortunes have coincided, and as such no real historical rivalry has ever grown up. The closest the clubs have come to such a thing was in the early to mid 1970’s when one of the many managers to have taken the helm at both clubs, Malcolm Allison was in change at Selhurst Park.
Allison, who made his name at Home Park in the sixties before being seduced away to the bright lights of Manchester City, had taken over at Palace in the third tier and set about transforming the club. He changed the club colours, from claret and blue to the red and blue stripes of Barcelona. He also changed the club nickname, from the Glazers, reflecting (ahem) their Crystal Palace heritage to the more aggressive, and marketable Eagles.
Fans were, however, more bemused when, for the home match against Notts County, at the time still the oldest professional club in the world, the players ran out, each with a new nickname on their tracksuit tops and, indeed, noted against their line up in the match programme. Allison had apparently pinched the idea from an All-Star tour of South Africa, that some Palace players had been on with him, when their opponents arrived so clad. Hence on came Nicky “the Cage” Hammond, Paul “the Problem” Hinshelwood, Alan ”the Hustler“ Whittle, presumably because “diving little blonde scroat” was taken elsewhere, and perhaps most bizarrely Charlie “ the card shuffler” Cooke.
One four one home defeat later, where it appeared to one Palace fan that Hammond saw the cage as his goal net where he was supposed to keep the ball, the experiment petered out. Of all Palace players nicknames of the seventies, George Graham’s nickname of “Stroller” was the only one that has survived the passage of time, and he brought that with him from his Chelsea and Arsenal days.
In 1974/5, when Palace were chasing promotion from Division three, along with, amongst others Blackburn and Argyle, the clubs were drawn to face each other in the FA Cup at Home Park. Allison took every opportunity to wind up the crowd, and Palace took the lead through Swindlehurst. Argyle equalised through the perfectly named captain, Mike Green (although mention must go to Palace who pre-Eagles days actually had a keeper called Bill Glazier) and then took the lead five minutes later through Billy Rafferty.
The match, in the seventies floodlit gloom, ebbed and flowed until in injury time, the aforementioned Whittle forced his way into the box and after a triple pike with twist, won his side a penalty. Up stepped Palace skipper Venables, but his weak kick was saved by a plunging Jim Furnell and moments later the final whistle led to the keeper being mobbed by the delighted, and doubtless relieved Argyle fans.
The following season Allison worked the FA Cup oracle again, this time all the way to the semi-final until Southampton defeated them. Included in the build-up to this was a falling out with hypnotist and mentalist Romark, who Allison had engaged to inspire the players and occasionally the crowd. On at least one occasion the mentalist was mid pitch talking to the crowd through his microphone, unaware the players, who were less than convinced as to the value of his pep talks, had unplugged the mike from inside the tunnel.
Allison departed Palace, later to return to Argyle. He was replaced by Venables, who continued to build the “team of the eighties”, based on the Palace youth side that had become the first since the Busby Babes to win consecutive FA Youth Cups. Unfortunately for Palace, the time to christen a team of the Eighties would be 1989, not 1979. The side splintered and disintegrated after a promising start, and Venables was replaced, at first by Ernie Whalley and then a returning Allison.
Palace have had, as mentioned a number of managers who also graced the Home Park office. It started with Jack Tresadern, who managed Palace then Spurs before joining Argyle and managing them either side of World War Two.
Inevitably Neil Warnock had spells at Palace, as did Lennie Lawrence (in both clubs in a caretaker capacity), Ian Holloway and Tony Pulis. Trevor Francis also managed the club, although, for a club that likes a returning manager, Steve Coppell and Steve Kember hold the record with four separate stints each. They also have a decent array of former England managers in their midst, with Venables, Hodgson, and uniquely, both one game managers Allardyce and Peter Taylor.
With the penchant for foreign International managers also being fashionable, you can also throw in The Netherlands boss Frank de Boer and Scotland’s George Burley.
Palace have not been immune to the financial turbulence that has impacted so many clubs. For a while the fiefdom of property developer Ron Noades, they were bought by Mark Goldberg who took the club into administration. Rescued by Simon Jordan, they failed financially again and a group of four lifelong Palace fans led by current chairman Steve Parrish acquired the club. The club now has majority American owners, led by Parrish, and seem a stable club. They remain committed to developing players through their Academy, and it is likely we may see some of the fruits of that work on pitch on Tuesday, including perhaps, Jesuran Rak Sakyi who impressed many clubs last season whilst on loan at Charlton. Indeed, any mention of the name on the Ipswich fan site is likely to spark a trail of drool as they recall their four-goal collapse at the Valley last season including two after leading 4-2 in added on time, inspired by Rak Sakyi, and their therefore covetous desire to borrow him. He’s probably going to Leicester though.
The only other fixture of note between the clubs would be the two nil home win for Argyle in 2005 when Nick Chadwick scored after a remarkable eleven point two three seconds. Given the acceleration possessed by Chadwick at this time, many Argyle fans remain convinced he had been left behind in the warmup, unnoticed by Palace defenders and Officials alike to be in position to score so rapidly.
One final mention must also go to the rivalry that has grown up in recent years between the two clubs at either end of the M23. As a South London club, Palace, or Crippled Alice as they are known by Millwall, and to a lesser degree Charlton, have more than ample local rivalries to sustain them.
With no love lost between managers Venables (Palace) and Mullery (Brighton), apparently heightened over the awarding of the Spurs captaincy to the latter years before, the clubs met in the FA Cup in 1977. After two close fought draws they met at Stamford Bridge for another replay. Palace took the lead, but then after a Brighton equaliser was ruled out for handball (later the Palace captain Jim Cannon admitted Peter Ward only handled the ball because he had pushed him towards it) referee Ron Challis (to this day known in Brighton as Challis of the Palace) gave a penalty after a foul by maverick Barry Silkman, later to follow Allison to Home Park. Brian Horton buried the penalty, but Challis ordered a retake for encroachment. Fine and dandy, except the only players encroaching were Palace players. Hammond saved the retake, and the game ended with Palace the victors.
Mullery, showered by hot coffee as he left the pitch, flung loose change at the Palace fans, shouting ”that’s all you lot are worth” and a bitter rivalry was born.
More recently and controversially Ian Holloway took his Palace side to the Amex for a play-off semi-final second leg, the tie all square. The away dressing room was, when the players reached it, covered in excrement. Holloway exploded, demanded an apology and a psyched-up Palace, won easily with two Zaha goals. Brighton boss Gus Poyet apologised publicly, and it was only later that it emerged that the “mess” was caused by the Palace coach driver who had been caught short, tried and failed to clean up, and had been too embarrassed to own up to the results.
Millwall fans sing that, as per the Smokie hit, for twenty-four years they’ve been s********* all over Palace.
Turns out that every now and again, so are Palace.
With both sides likely to ring the changes, this one is hard to call.
Let’s just remember the last time we beat Palace at home in a cup tie (last season’s JPT) we ended up going all the way to Wembley.
COYG!!!!!!
PS lads, it’s my birthday too 😊
Lundan Cabbies All Star XI reserves (H) August 29th Carabao Cup
To misquote Oscar Wilde “To lose one 95th minute point may be considered misfortune. To lose two (in a row) looks like carelessness”.
After last weeks Televised Late Show with Che Adams, it was, as Birmingham bookended a spectacular away performance in everything bar the thing that counts, the result, with two well worked strikes, as frustrating a result as Argyle are (hopefully) likely to suffer on their return the Championship level.
Arriving in the Midlands, in the case of some of the fan coaches, spectacularly early, and with Randell restored to the midfield in place of the off-wavelength Cundy, Argyle proceeded to deliver a performance that, in the main, was operating as Southampton levels of possession and control. The travesty that, having equalised the opening Hogan salvo from the Blues who scored a good goal after a cross in from the Argyle right, with a sharp Hardie finish in front of the away fans, they did not go on to take all three points was highlighted by a devastatingly fine finish at the end by Jay Stansfield.
Arriving on loan just 48 hours before the game, Stansfield, who is a combative and difficult opponent even without the motivation provided by the tiny minority, but still moronic, fans who think his father’s death from cancer is some kind of “football banter” just because he played for our rivals, scored the kind of dream finish that illogical laws of football would consider inevitable. In some ways the only shock was that the through ball and shot didn’t come from Jutkiewitz and Cosgrove, the two Blues ex Argyle loanees available from the bench.
Big Sam was not called upon to rub salt into the wound of a performance that was worth much more than the nothing it eventually received. The ex-Villa contingent would have felt it doubly hard, especially as KKH and Azaz both contributed mightily. Bluenose Scarr also deserved more alongside new partner Gibson, the player Stansfield eluded.
With some catastrophisers already calculating the potential relegation impact of the two dropped points on the final table, whilst the so-called “green tints“ are enjoying an Argyle team that has more than held its own in terms of possession and control, despite only being five games into a new system and squad, the only other news of note was the alleged agreement of a new loan striker. Rumoured to be, probably, Josh Coburn from Middlesbrough, that will signal the end of our transfer window business, although the impending mad cap last minutes of the transfer window may have some twists and turns in store for the squad composition.
It is of course far too early to draw significant conclusions from the tables as they stand. Last season at roughly the same point QPR were nailed on for the Premier League and Coventry were doomed. Even a cursory glance at the table shows a cushion of eight sides below Argyle, including the Northern powerhouses from last season of Sunderland and Middlesbrough.
Spare a though for Sheffield Wednesday fans though. Having seemingly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at least twice in the last month of last season, and then scraped through a Wembley final to earn promotion, they are pointless and forlorn, a club at war with its ownership after an even later win snatching penalty for Cardiff. Not only that, but their ticket prices are the highest in the division.
Ipswich too finally met their match in the battle of the European Title winners (retired), losing by the odd goal in seven to Leeds, Leeds, Leeds at Portman Road, where the Whites, bolstered by Swansea’s Piroe, and some of their Premiership strikers deigning to make themselves available for selection (as opposed to just being strikers in the more traditional Mick Lynch way) dismantled the Town defence with three goals in nine first half minutes. The Tractor Boys have started well generally, but it will be interesting to see if the fans nerves start to twang as and when Eric ten Hag gets his comeuppance at United (as looked quite likely when two down in four minutes at home to Forest) and rumours start to circulate on McKenna’s availability.
As we go to press the first itchy trigger finger has been pulled, and that ocean of stability, the Valley, will see the first managerial change of the season, as a hundred thousand first sacking betting slips with Ishmael Watford scrawled on them hit the bins nationwide.
Tuesday night’s game is that all too rare occasion when a “big club,” in monetary terms if not in achievement, reputation or crowd size, dusts off the “A2Z of English Football” and then flips the pages westwards, growing ever more concerned at the distances involved, for a tie that looks to them more like a quest for the ring of Mordor than a second round League Cup trip. No giant pasty for the Carabao Cup lads.
This match should be branded the suffix derby, featuring as it does two clubs, whose fans determinedly resist using their “first names”. For both sets of fans this game instantly became Argyle versus Palace.
A sell-out crowd (when isn’t it these days) for the Selhurst massive, famed for their imitation Ultras creating one of the best atmospheres in the Premier League, gives Argyle a chance to, if not giant, then tall dwarf, kill for the first time since Andy Thomas, Mark Fiore, Rhys Wilmot and later Nicky Marker as a goalkeeper inspired a two leg victory over Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang in 1991 in the then romantically named Rumbelows Cup at the same stage.
If Wimbledon were the nouveau arrives of the higher league when Argyle dumped them out 3-0 on aggregate, the contrast could not be more marked as the oldest League club in existence pays a visit to Home Park.
No, not Notts County, as you may have erroneously believed. Apparently, it’s Palace.
Palace have recently announced that following historic research, they are the direct descendent of the amateur Crystal Palace team that played on the grounds of the famed Crystal Palace built in Victorian time, and that they are therefore adopting into their club badge the year of their formation of 1861. This makes them exactly one year older than previously oldest League Club Notts County (and they only scrambled back into the effective fourth division last season).
It is undoubtedly true that not only was there an amateur club called Crystal Palace that played on the old cricket pitch at the Crystal Palace, and then later at various other grounds. A number of the members of this club were also stalwarts of the FA, and they provided the only player, Charles Chenery, who started all the first three official England Internationals.
The club participated in the FA Cup of 1871/2 season, losing in the first ever FA Cup replay in the semi-final, to Royal Engineers. In previous rounds they had twice benefited from the rules that allowed both teams to progress in the event of a draw.
So far, so ancient. The loss of playing rights at the Crystal Palace however was eventually to lead to the extinction of the amateur club, and a new club was constituted in the early years of the twentieth century. It was this version of Crystal Palace that first played Argyle in the Southern League in 1906/7, losing at home and then drawing away 0-0 at Home Park.
The FA have stated that they believe the original club which went into extinction after a season where they played all matches away from home, and the newly constituted club of 1905 are in fact two distinct and separate entitles and recognised both. Palace have redesigned their badge to claim their new (old) history, and, coincidentally I am sure, a neat historical marketing hook.
In fact, Sheffield FC (now playing in Derbyshire) and Cray Wanderers (formed in 1860) are both older clubs, and with Cray Wanderers being local, it means that even being formed in 1861, Palace are not even the oldest club in London.
From those initial forays to the Crystal Palace Ground, followed by Herne Hill and The Nest, Palace eventually alighted at Selhurst Park in 1925, where they have remained ever since. Argyles first visit was a tame five all draw.
Games against Palace have tended to come in clumps when the clubs fortunes have coincided, and as such no real historical rivalry has ever grown up. The closest the clubs have come to such a thing was in the early to mid 1970’s when one of the many managers to have taken the helm at both clubs, Malcolm Allison was in change at Selhurst Park.
Allison, who made his name at Home Park in the sixties before being seduced away to the bright lights of Manchester City, had taken over at Palace in the third tier and set about transforming the club. He changed the club colours, from claret and blue to the red and blue stripes of Barcelona. He also changed the club nickname, from the Glazers, reflecting (ahem) their Crystal Palace heritage to the more aggressive, and marketable Eagles.
Fans were, however, more bemused when, for the home match against Notts County, at the time still the oldest professional club in the world, the players ran out, each with a new nickname on their tracksuit tops and, indeed, noted against their line up in the match programme. Allison had apparently pinched the idea from an All-Star tour of South Africa, that some Palace players had been on with him, when their opponents arrived so clad. Hence on came Nicky “the Cage” Hammond, Paul “the Problem” Hinshelwood, Alan ”the Hustler“ Whittle, presumably because “diving little blonde scroat” was taken elsewhere, and perhaps most bizarrely Charlie “ the card shuffler” Cooke.
One four one home defeat later, where it appeared to one Palace fan that Hammond saw the cage as his goal net where he was supposed to keep the ball, the experiment petered out. Of all Palace players nicknames of the seventies, George Graham’s nickname of “Stroller” was the only one that has survived the passage of time, and he brought that with him from his Chelsea and Arsenal days.
In 1974/5, when Palace were chasing promotion from Division three, along with, amongst others Blackburn and Argyle, the clubs were drawn to face each other in the FA Cup at Home Park. Allison took every opportunity to wind up the crowd, and Palace took the lead through Swindlehurst. Argyle equalised through the perfectly named captain, Mike Green (although mention must go to Palace who pre-Eagles days actually had a keeper called Bill Glazier) and then took the lead five minutes later through Billy Rafferty.
The match, in the seventies floodlit gloom, ebbed and flowed until in injury time, the aforementioned Whittle forced his way into the box and after a triple pike with twist, won his side a penalty. Up stepped Palace skipper Venables, but his weak kick was saved by a plunging Jim Furnell and moments later the final whistle led to the keeper being mobbed by the delighted, and doubtless relieved Argyle fans.
The following season Allison worked the FA Cup oracle again, this time all the way to the semi-final until Southampton defeated them. Included in the build-up to this was a falling out with hypnotist and mentalist Romark, who Allison had engaged to inspire the players and occasionally the crowd. On at least one occasion the mentalist was mid pitch talking to the crowd through his microphone, unaware the players, who were less than convinced as to the value of his pep talks, had unplugged the mike from inside the tunnel.
Allison departed Palace, later to return to Argyle. He was replaced by Venables, who continued to build the “team of the eighties”, based on the Palace youth side that had become the first since the Busby Babes to win consecutive FA Youth Cups. Unfortunately for Palace, the time to christen a team of the Eighties would be 1989, not 1979. The side splintered and disintegrated after a promising start, and Venables was replaced, at first by Ernie Whalley and then a returning Allison.
Palace have had, as mentioned a number of managers who also graced the Home Park office. It started with Jack Tresadern, who managed Palace then Spurs before joining Argyle and managing them either side of World War Two.
Inevitably Neil Warnock had spells at Palace, as did Lennie Lawrence (in both clubs in a caretaker capacity), Ian Holloway and Tony Pulis. Trevor Francis also managed the club, although, for a club that likes a returning manager, Steve Coppell and Steve Kember hold the record with four separate stints each. They also have a decent array of former England managers in their midst, with Venables, Hodgson, and uniquely, both one game managers Allardyce and Peter Taylor.
With the penchant for foreign International managers also being fashionable, you can also throw in The Netherlands boss Frank de Boer and Scotland’s George Burley.
Palace have not been immune to the financial turbulence that has impacted so many clubs. For a while the fiefdom of property developer Ron Noades, they were bought by Mark Goldberg who took the club into administration. Rescued by Simon Jordan, they failed financially again and a group of four lifelong Palace fans led by current chairman Steve Parrish acquired the club. The club now has majority American owners, led by Parrish, and seem a stable club. They remain committed to developing players through their Academy, and it is likely we may see some of the fruits of that work on pitch on Tuesday, including perhaps, Jesuran Rak Sakyi who impressed many clubs last season whilst on loan at Charlton. Indeed, any mention of the name on the Ipswich fan site is likely to spark a trail of drool as they recall their four-goal collapse at the Valley last season including two after leading 4-2 in added on time, inspired by Rak Sakyi, and their therefore covetous desire to borrow him. He’s probably going to Leicester though.
The only other fixture of note between the clubs would be the two nil home win for Argyle in 2005 when Nick Chadwick scored after a remarkable eleven point two three seconds. Given the acceleration possessed by Chadwick at this time, many Argyle fans remain convinced he had been left behind in the warmup, unnoticed by Palace defenders and Officials alike to be in position to score so rapidly.
One final mention must also go to the rivalry that has grown up in recent years between the two clubs at either end of the M23. As a South London club, Palace, or Crippled Alice as they are known by Millwall, and to a lesser degree Charlton, have more than ample local rivalries to sustain them.
With no love lost between managers Venables (Palace) and Mullery (Brighton), apparently heightened over the awarding of the Spurs captaincy to the latter years before, the clubs met in the FA Cup in 1977. After two close fought draws they met at Stamford Bridge for another replay. Palace took the lead, but then after a Brighton equaliser was ruled out for handball (later the Palace captain Jim Cannon admitted Peter Ward only handled the ball because he had pushed him towards it) referee Ron Challis (to this day known in Brighton as Challis of the Palace) gave a penalty after a foul by maverick Barry Silkman, later to follow Allison to Home Park. Brian Horton buried the penalty, but Challis ordered a retake for encroachment. Fine and dandy, except the only players encroaching were Palace players. Hammond saved the retake, and the game ended with Palace the victors.
Mullery, showered by hot coffee as he left the pitch, flung loose change at the Palace fans, shouting ”that’s all you lot are worth” and a bitter rivalry was born.
More recently and controversially Ian Holloway took his Palace side to the Amex for a play-off semi-final second leg, the tie all square. The away dressing room was, when the players reached it, covered in excrement. Holloway exploded, demanded an apology and a psyched-up Palace, won easily with two Zaha goals. Brighton boss Gus Poyet apologised publicly, and it was only later that it emerged that the “mess” was caused by the Palace coach driver who had been caught short, tried and failed to clean up, and had been too embarrassed to own up to the results.
Millwall fans sing that, as per the Smokie hit, for twenty-four years they’ve been s********* all over Palace.
Turns out that every now and again, so are Palace.
With both sides likely to ring the changes, this one is hard to call.
Let’s just remember the last time we beat Palace at home in a cup tie (last season’s JPT) we ended up going all the way to Wembley.
COYG!!!!!!
PS lads, it’s my birthday too 😊
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