If you are reading this, you must have survived the celebrations……..
This has been hard to write, feeling rough from said celebrations but almost a mighty shout out to the guy using a circular saw outside my window at 8:30 this morning, blatantly a Seagull….
Now forgive me before you start reading this, but I feel I need to qualify the tone in advance. The performance made me feel odd, we talked about it on the night, it was almost an empty victory. Have we changed the way in which we view the club that much? The win against Spurs felt great, this one was more about relief than anything. To quote “Is this how Man U fans feel like after every match?”. It was Reading, we were fully expected to win this, they are not a good team and we are a premiership team, so my expectations were higher than they should be. It’s the sodding cup and however annoying the BBC adverts are ‘anything can happen’ so I should have been expecting that. For some reason however, I did not. I cannot put my finger on it.
The team line up was no shock, Hennessey back in goal, otherwise the same team line up as the Liverpool game. When the game started though the way in which the team was playing was not the same – Ledley seemed to be playing more as an attacking midfielder with the defensive duties not needed, Bolasie was also roaming again, to the extent that the left wing looked completely abandoned. The start of the game however was nothing like the way in which we started the game against Liverpool. There was not the same fluidity, it felt disjointed again. The passing was not crisp, the movement was not there, it was as if they had forgotten how to play as a team once more. There was some encouragement up front though, the front three of Bolasie, Zaha and Adebayour were looking good together, with some interesting passing moves, flowing forward. The problem was the same though, that with the great movement the final part was missing – GETTING IN THE BOX.
I am going to stop for a rant now. Who is our attacking coach? Why does he not tell the forward line up to get into the box? Mark Bright is there doing training, he used to always get in the box to great success so why isn’t he whispering in their ears? Ian Wright watches a lot of games; he must be tearing his hair (erm nose hair?) out watching the striker force. Broken record time but if Murray were playing he would be in the box, throwing himself at the ball, gambling as to where the ball could potentially be, like all great strikers do. We have seen Bolasie do it for a game, bag a hat trick. Zaha did it for a few games and was picking up goals. Why are they choosing to not attack like this? It seems so simple and yet consistently we are not doing it.
Back to the game. It was going ok, more due to the fact that Reading were too poor to do anything about our average performance. When they got possession they were pretty much just giving it straight back to us. Their only outlet was tricky left winger but a lot of the time his final ball decision making was wasting anything that he created. So the game was Palace putting some pressure on Reading, winning free kicks and corners, lots of corners, but nothing was really coming out of it. We were not creating a multitude of clear cut chances. Instead we were painting rainbows over their box, the ball being the brush. Over it would go, Adebayour 3 yards back from where he should have been, recycle and put the ball over and Ledley would be the furthest forward, recycle, ping it over and no one is in the box. Cabaye seemed to have his eye in when it came to deliveries and direct free kicks too, but the keeper was up to the task. There were 2 solid free kicks that were saved during the match, just lacking some pace.
Chances wise the ones of note were a breakaway – yes we were still managing to have break-aways in spite of Reading really not pushing forward – where Bolasie laid the ball off into the box for Adebayour but, under pressure, his shot was well saved from close range at the left side of the goal. A decent chance and you think a fully fit Adebayour puts it away. Other than that the only one I remember of note in the first half was another Bolasie moment, pushing forward to the right side of the box and beating his man, shooting well but saved by the keeper with the rebound falling to Ledley who smashed it over, stretching and under pressure.
Actually we did have a few chances, maybe I am being harsh. Bolasie had an effort he smashed just past the near post, then a similar one a short while later. A combination of their keeper and our inaccuracy proving key. The second attempt saw Bolasie breaking across the box and you could see him curling it with his right foot into the far corner but instead he smashed it wide of the near post instead.
Something else that really got my goat happened not only once, but twice. Cast your minds back to that penalty we conceded from a corner, a bit of tugging in the box. Fair enough that it was a foul, but let’s come back to this game. An almost identical challenge happens, the referee blows his whistle with the corner incoming and goes ‘boys, cut it out, take the corner again’. What the hell is that? Different rules for different teams. The second time was even more farcical. Same blow up by the ref but this time Zaha was literally pushed into the back of the net. Undoubted foul, if you walked up and pushed a player off the pitch anywhere on the park it’s a foul so why not here? It was blatant, Zaha wouldn’t just run into the net mid corner, so why is it not a foul? Someone needs to have a word.
With that the game strolled into half time. Palace were doing ok, reading were shocking to be honest. They really didn’t look like they would pose a threat, palace looking like they didn’t know how to score still.
The second half started pretty much the same. The pressure was starting to ramp up though, one of those Cabaye free kicks well saved and from a wide free kick the ball landed on Jedi’s head and his powerful header was again well saved by Al Habsi. It was starting to feel like one of those traditional cup games, a string of saves by the keeper whilst the defending team hope to snatch something to win 1-0.
Their moment almost came. They pushed down the right and a deep cross is allowed into the box and the overlapping man at the far post gets a free header, luckily Hennessey is up to the task and keeps the ball out with his legs. No idea who was marking that man and why the ball was allowed into the box so easily. That was their chance to score and snatch it and I don’t think that Palace would have been able to recover from that, the confidence would have been totally shot to hell.
With all this pressure building something silly happened then. Zaha got involved in an innocuous argument with a reading player which then became a massive case of handbags with the first man flying in was Delaney, face lit up ready for a brawl. The referee looked dumbfounded and confused as to what was going on and sauntered about – to steal someone’s description – looking like Jasper Carrot! Those of the right age should be able to picture that. It all ended with a couple of yellow cards, but more importantly the referee lost all control of the game for 15 odd minutes. It was suddenly very scrappy, fouls, cards, the flow was being completely disrupted and I feared that all the building pressure would be ruined by Zaha’s indiscretion and the referee’s confusion.
The game continued and palace were continuing to attack but we just didn’t look like carving out that clear cut chance that would decide the match. Until a key moment and I guess its focussed around the referee again. A recycled (feels like my word of the day that does) ball is pumped back direct into the box, almost like a rugby up and over, with Bolasie bursting onto it. The pundits question whether he would make it but I think he would for sure, as he runs in he has his eyes locked on the balls flight and the reading defender sticks out his arm and drags him back. Inexplicable really, like that moment a defender stops the ball going over the line with his arm, almost like instinct but the result is a penalty and the defenders marching orders. He will be kicking himself as it was not necessary and the form their keeper was in, he most likely would have saved it anyway!
Anyway up steps Cabaye for the penalty. I haven’t felt his tense in a long time, I almost cannot watch. The last time I felt like this was when Super Kev was lining up his effort. An interesting point of comparison in my eyes as it makes me think about how important this fixture could potentially be to the club – cup run continues, the hope it will change our form in general, lift the teams spirit, maybe it’s the key to Cabaye turning his own season around. Cabaye runs in and blasts in just off centre, the keeper barely moves and the balls hits his hand….. oh god he’s blown it, our season is over, how do we come back from throwing this? Then the balls bounces, its inside the post, the keeper only parried it and didn’t manage to keep it out! Palace score and the relief in the pub is immense. A wave of emotion outpouring, pent up frustration gone, belief coming back into the faces. The atmosphere restored.
The game then continued with reading having to do something but not really looking like they will be able to, however palace were continuing to give them the best chance they could. Our defence looks completely lacking in composure, suddenly we are slicing clearances back into our own box, hoofing the ball clear back to their midfield, giving away free kicks. Luckily they were not able to manufacture anything out of these opportunities and it enabled palace to keep trying to break away and waste time. One moment between Cabaye and Bay Bay in the corner a great example but the big man was caught offside in the process, typical palace I was thinking.
Then came the final moment, late in the game Zaha is having none of this time wasting malarkey and sets off on a mazy run, beating 3 defenders but they create an effective wall so he lays the ball across to Adebayour who puts a fantastic first time pass back into the box and Campbell is breaking into the area – WAIT! Campbell? When the hell did he come on? Has he just run on the pitch from the bench of his own accord? – he passes the ball to the keepers left but he gets something on it and the ball hits the inside of the post! AAAAAH typical palace finish, but wait the ball falls nicely for Campbell and he is able to smash the ball home from 1 yard, just ahead of the despairing dive of the keeper. I wish we could score goals like this more often and we should. That run made by Campbell was what we were crying out for all game and that moment of quality from Adebayour the same. I hope it provides the lift to the players that it gave to the fans.
And that is the game. Done and dusted, the team are off to Wembley for the semi-finals of the FA cup! Could this be our year? I am hoping so although there are no easy teams left now so we will need to improve our form a lot by the time that game comes around. Believe.
Looking at the players during the match there were some questionable displays I want to pick out. Firstly, between the sticks Hennessey, another questionable day where he just doesn’t seem to have the confidence of the defence, notably Dann heading the ball pretty much out of his hands at one point. A cross came in that he completely misjudged and flaps at deep at the far post where Ward was shepherding it out, so instead it falls to a reading man who fluffs his lines and cannot carve an opening for himself. It’s getting beyond a joke now, he had such a good spell but at what point does a player need a break to regain his confidence, as his is shot to hell.
Soare is the other man to pick out, he looked suspect all game. He almost gave away one chance when he completely lost the ball between his feet. Then every time the ball came to him his control looked suspect, clumsy and his passes were too strong, misguided or simply just hoofs down the line to no one. A couple of times he needed his pace to make up for his errors in positioning or a poor challenge.
Otherwise the rest of the team did a job, nothing outstanding, nothing of real note to pick out. But as a whole the performance was OK, it seems like the media were loving it and saying how great we were but that is not what I saw on the pitch. We were definitely the better team that is without doubt but still far from our best. Never did we reach the level that we did against Liverpool for example. A better team would have put us to the sword I feel before we finally got our break. I honestly expected us to put them to the sword and win by 4 goals, to banish the demons, I was shocked that the odds were 13/10 and thought that was easy money on the palace win! How wrong I was.
Next up we welcome Leicester to Selhurst Park, I have heard they are a small team, shouldn’t pose too many problems to our team, especially as they are favourites to go down. (information may be a little out of date).
Things could be far worse! COYP
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