Today marks a very strange anniversary in Palace history. In a momentous season, that had seen Palace begin their inaugural season as a Football League club, along with many other former members of the Southern League - Palace faced a midweek fixture on Wednesday 3rd November at home to Southend United.
To set the scene, despite losing the opening fixture of the season, 1-2 away to Merthyr Town - Palace had made good progress and had been unbeaten in the following fixtures at home, with narrow defeats away to Bristol Rovers and Reading - Palace were sitting in 2nd place, behind leaders Southampton and just ahead of 3rd placed Millwall Athletic - as they were then called.
Southend were struggling in 15th place, without an away goal, let alone an away win up that match.
I think you can guess what happened - yes, Palace lost the unbeaten home record, losing 3-2, but that was not the end of the matter.
During the match, the Southend players put in several challenges on the Palace team that drew the anger of the Palace support at the old Nest ground at Selhurst Station.
So much so, at the final whistle, a few Southend players and the match referee got a good kicking from a handful irate fans who had got on the pitch.
Subsequently, the League held an inquiry later that month, with the decision taken to shut Selhurst for the last week in November/early December 1920.
Palace were due to play Exeter at home that weekend - the Palace board asked Tottenham to stage the match instead (the League ruled Palace could not play within a 10 mile radius of Selhurst) - Palace Reserves were due to play at Tottenham on that weekend and Palace hoped Spurs would put the reserve game back - but the Spurs board turned down the proposal.
Palace had to play Exeter at Southampton instead - which must have been quite surreal, Southampton were heading the table, we can only imagine, with Exeter wearing exactly the same home kit as Southampton, who most of the crowd were willing on at Palace’s ‘home’ game!
At the same League enquiry, held on November 15th 1920 - Millwall were also sanctioned. They had trouble in their home fixture with Newport County a couple of weeks before the ‘riot’ at Selhurst.
The Newport keeper had been targeted by fans behind his goal, first it was verbal, but then stones were thrown, after the ref had been alerted, play continued, but so did the missiles and swearing, so Newport’s keeper ran into the crowd and started fighting with his asailants.
The Newport keeper was sanctioned and so were Millwall - it’s quite feasible that back in the day, at least a few fans would have been at both incidents at the old Den and Selhurst, although Millwall have obviously gone on to have dozens of ground sanctions since 1920 - this was the only time Palace faced a censure for crowd trouble (although many will be able to reel other times fans and players have confronted each other since!).
To set the scene, despite losing the opening fixture of the season, 1-2 away to Merthyr Town - Palace had made good progress and had been unbeaten in the following fixtures at home, with narrow defeats away to Bristol Rovers and Reading - Palace were sitting in 2nd place, behind leaders Southampton and just ahead of 3rd placed Millwall Athletic - as they were then called.
Southend were struggling in 15th place, without an away goal, let alone an away win up that match.
I think you can guess what happened - yes, Palace lost the unbeaten home record, losing 3-2, but that was not the end of the matter.
During the match, the Southend players put in several challenges on the Palace team that drew the anger of the Palace support at the old Nest ground at Selhurst Station.
So much so, at the final whistle, a few Southend players and the match referee got a good kicking from a handful irate fans who had got on the pitch.
Subsequently, the League held an inquiry later that month, with the decision taken to shut Selhurst for the last week in November/early December 1920.
Palace were due to play Exeter at home that weekend - the Palace board asked Tottenham to stage the match instead (the League ruled Palace could not play within a 10 mile radius of Selhurst) - Palace Reserves were due to play at Tottenham on that weekend and Palace hoped Spurs would put the reserve game back - but the Spurs board turned down the proposal.
Palace had to play Exeter at Southampton instead - which must have been quite surreal, Southampton were heading the table, we can only imagine, with Exeter wearing exactly the same home kit as Southampton, who most of the crowd were willing on at Palace’s ‘home’ game!
At the same League enquiry, held on November 15th 1920 - Millwall were also sanctioned. They had trouble in their home fixture with Newport County a couple of weeks before the ‘riot’ at Selhurst.
The Newport keeper had been targeted by fans behind his goal, first it was verbal, but then stones were thrown, after the ref had been alerted, play continued, but so did the missiles and swearing, so Newport’s keeper ran into the crowd and started fighting with his asailants.
The Newport keeper was sanctioned and so were Millwall - it’s quite feasible that back in the day, at least a few fans would have been at both incidents at the old Den and Selhurst, although Millwall have obviously gone on to have dozens of ground sanctions since 1920 - this was the only time Palace faced a censure for crowd trouble (although many will be able to reel other times fans and players have confronted each other since!).
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire