football rambles

 We finally made it to a Villa game on Saturday and unfortunately the indifferent run of form continued with a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace.  Villa looked a little bereft of fresh ideas and without Konsa in central defence and both Kamara and Onana out in defensive midfield there was little protection when Palace stuck to their plan of hitting Villa on the break. It took Palace only 4 minutes to take the lead when Ismailla Sarr did exactly that and hit Villa on the break. Villa pressed to get the equaliser and after a few decent saves from Henderson, Ollie Watkins managed to go round the keeper in  the 37th minute to get the equaliser. It felt like they weren't done and were going to take the lead in any minute. Bailey was judged to have been fouled at the end of the half and Villa were awarded a penalty. Tielemans stepped up to take it, but it was soft and Henderson made the save. To Villa's dismay they cleared after the ensuing corner and again hit Villa on the break...

 The first time I have managed to get to a league ground in ages and it was for a preseason friendly between Ipswich of League 1 and Premier League Crystal Palace, who have just appointed Patrick Viera as their manager and who I last saw on the touchline at Nice. It was a different experience to last time I was here when they took on West Ham also in preseason, 3 years ago, but a lot has changed since then. The crowd was pretty sparse in that a lot of people had hardly been able to get to a game in 2 years and a slot safety checks including proof of vaccination or lateral flow tests were in place. The game was entertaining enough and Nsiala in the heart of defence for Ipswich had an especially good game. Matata fro Palace on the other hand was guilty of wasting a lot of chances. Before the goal both teams had their chances and hit the post. Overall, it was an entertaining game, so it was a bit disappointing that it was decided by a slightly dodgy and not entirely unpredictable Zaha...

Here are a couple of photos of when Posh and Place got on the pitch. I didn't take any photos of the action, as the match was too exciting.

Yesterday I was at Peterborough for the game between Peterborough and Crystal Palace and Posh got off to a good start. However, it will be interesting to see how they get on against some of the stronger teams in the division as both Posh and Palace are expected to find life hard in the Championship, but hopefully Peterborough can prove their critics wrong over the season. In the first few minutes it was Palace who looked the most lively with Sean Scannell coming close in the first minute, but fortunately Paul Jones was equal to the task and saved. On 5 minutes Andrew Davies also came close for the visitors, but again Jones who has made his loan deal from Exeter permanent saved. Posh then started to get into the game and Tommy Rowe was unlucky not to score from a Mark Little cross and a couple of minutes later Julian Speroni in goal for Palace did well to save a Grant McCann power drive. On 19 minutes Darren Ambrose, who is a bit of a legend at Palace, but who in my opinion is a complet...

The badge above is the current crest of Crystal Palace. They are currently having a vote on a new badge at Selhurst Park, an idea which always seems to be ripe for being hijacked by rival fans to me. Therefore not surprisingly they are playing it safe with all four of the variants being Eagles, the nickname that has become synonymous with the club. It hasn't always been this way though, as they were known as the Glaziers up until 1973. The 1935-36 season was the first one in which the team wore a crest of any description and this was the initials of the club at a time when they still wore claret and blue. The next badge change for Palace came in 1955 when they introduced a badge with a facade of the place that they are named after, Crystal Palace (obviously). In 1964 Crystal Palace played Real Madrid in a friendly to open their floodlights. After this they decided to wear all white for a couple of seasons and with it and for some reason changed their badge to a red and blue shield....

Notes on shirts from top to bottom: The 1973-4 shirt, when the Glaziers became the Eagles and Palace started to wear red and blue. The 1976-7 shirt, the first time Palace tried out the sash design. the 2005 Centenary shirt that was unfortunately used in a few friendly matches. This season sees a return to the sash, but none of the players seem to be modelling afros

Crystal Palace started in claret and blue shirts in 1907 and remained with these colours until 1938 when they decided to change to white kits in an attempt to improve their rather poor fortunes. From 1949-54 Palace went back to claret and blue and then wore white shirts with some claret and blue until 1963. In the 1963-4 season Palace showed their supersticious side again by changing to their yellow away shirt, as it had been lucky for them (Many years later Palace would be ridiculed for having a yellow and blue away kit modelled on Brazil.) As well as being supersticious Palace are obviously impressionable as in 1964 they played Real Madrid in a game to celebrate the opening of their floodlights and decided to adopt the all white kit of their illustrious guests. After a copule of seasons in the all white of Real Madrid, Palace continued to play in claret and blue until Malcolm Allinson arrived in 1973. In the bullsitadabulous style that football didn't really adopt until the forma...