Crystal Palace vs Everton

The toffees travel to Selhurst Park this Saturday to face a Palace team 6 places and 4 points above us. The fact that a steady but unremarkable Palace team currently sit 10th tells you something about the quality of the lower half of the table. In a broader sense this should encourage us as we now look like a side who have half a clue and don't fold under the slightest pressure. As far as the game is concerned, Palace are a team not unlike us; well set up, have a couple of quality players and generally play on the counter. They beat Burnley comfortably at the weekend, but it's hard to say how much of a marker that is of good a team.

The biggest problem I see is playing a team who don't mind giving you possession and won't leave bags of space for us to counteratack. This was our undoing against Luton (and conceeding soft goals), so we need to see if Dyche has a plan to break palace down and get us back in the wins. Could this be the game for the much-anticipated Dom/Beto 442 axis of madness? We've won both our away games in london this season and I see no reason to be negative, so let's go for a 2-0 win. Dom (assist Beto) and Beto (assist Dom). Up the toffees!

I predict a repeat of last season's 0-0 snoozefest at Selhurst during the run-in.

You could be right though. This could be the perfect game to pair DCL and Beto up.

We score after 17 seconds, then shut up shop.

Ok, I think we have a chance here, but my new strategy which isn't doing too bad is to predict that we always get fucked over... so 2-0 to Palarse

COYB

Bit of a funny team Palace this year, think we will get a 0-1 win,DCL with the winner.

UTFTs

I've been just the once to Croydon Eagles.
The eagle's performance from one crossbar to the other, 3' above the ground was memorable.
3 of my friends went to all the away Euro games back in the day, and were given 3 hospitality tickets as a thank you.
One coudn't go, so I got the ticket.
Free bus trip, stop at a rugby club for early lunch.
Then we were given our hospitality tickets for the match. Whoop di do, we thought. Sitting with the big wigs we thought.
No! Decent seat and our hospitality package?
A voucher for a pie and a pint at half time.
Lukaku with a near post scramble and happy days.
Same again this week please.

Yankthattoffee wrote:I've been just the once to Croydon Eagles.
The eagle's performance from one crossbar to the other, 3' above the ground was memorable.
3 of my friends went to all the away Euro games back in the day, and were given 3 hospitality tickets as a thank you.
One coudn't go, so I got the ticket.
Free bus trip, stop at a rugby club for early lunch.
Then we were given our hospitality tickets for the match. Whoop di do, we thought. Sitting with the big wigs we thought.
No! Decent seat and our hospitality package?
A voucher for a pie and a pint at half time.
Lukaku with a near post scramble and happy days.
Same again this week please.

I've been to Selhurst more than any other ground bar Goodison. A consequence of watching Everton a lot in the 80's and 90's when a) it was sometimes tricky to get away tickets to Highbury, White Hart Lane etc and b) they ground-shared with Charlton and Wimbledon for several seasons when all of them were in the top flight for long stretches.

Mixed results generally. We lost a few that I saw there, but probably won more than we lost. Never liked the ground though, or the location. That blue and red panelling they used to have (and might still have) made me want to vomit at times, it's disgusting. Blue and red don't go well together, as everyone should know.

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:Ok, I think we have a chance here, but my new strategy which isn't doing too bad is to predict that we always get fucked over... so 2-0 to Palarse

COYB

Isn't that Bubbles strategy?


Copyright Law is such a difficult thing to adjudicate.

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:

Yankthattoffee wrote:I've been just the once to Croydon Eagles.
The eagle's performance from one crossbar to the other, 3' above the ground was memorable.
3 of my friends went to all the away Euro games back in the day, and were given 3 hospitality tickets as a thank you.
One coudn't go, so I got the ticket.
Free bus trip, stop at a rugby club for early lunch.
Then we were given our hospitality tickets for the match. Whoop di do, we thought. Sitting with the big wigs we thought.
No! Decent seat and our hospitality package?
A voucher for a pie and a pint at half time.
Lukaku with a near post scramble and happy days.
Same again this week please.

I've been to Selhurst more than any other ground bar Goodison. A consequence of watching Everton a lot in the 80's and 90's when a) it was sometimes tricky to get away tickets to Highbury, White Hart Lane etc and b) they ground-shared with Charlton and Wimbledon for several seasons when all of them were in the top flight for long stretches.

Mixed results generally. We lost a few that I saw there, but probably won more than we lost. Never liked the ground though, or the location. That blue and red panelling they used to have (and might still have) made me want to vomit at times, it's disgusting. Blue and red don't go well together, as everyone should know.

I've been to very few London grounds. QPR in the 80s. Moyes' last game at Chelsea. Watford was snowed off after we had gone down the previous day, so that doesn't count.Does Oxford count? Terrible place, sat on scaffolding during R. Maxwell's era.
The 2 Wembleys once each.
As for Selhurst, it's my only Sky personal appearance which I've never seen. At the end of a 1-0 win I held my scarf above my head, and according to friends, the camera zoomed in on me. Aah, big moment huh?

Yankthattoffee wrote:

Rotterdam 1985 wrote:

Yankthattoffee wrote:I've been just the once to Croydon Eagles.
The eagle's performance from one crossbar to the other, 3' above the ground was memorable.
3 of my friends went to all the away Euro games back in the day, and were given 3 hospitality tickets as a thank you.
One coudn't go, so I got the ticket.
Free bus trip, stop at a rugby club for early lunch.
Then we were given our hospitality tickets for the match. Whoop di do, we thought. Sitting with the big wigs we thought.
No! Decent seat and our hospitality package?
A voucher for a pie and a pint at half time.
Lukaku with a near post scramble and happy days.
Same again this week please.

I've been to Selhurst more than any other ground bar Goodison. A consequence of watching Everton a lot in the 80's and 90's when a) it was sometimes tricky to get away tickets to Highbury, White Hart Lane etc and b) they ground-shared with Charlton and Wimbledon for several seasons when all of them were in the top flight for long stretches.

Mixed results generally. We lost a few that I saw there, but probably won more than we lost. Never liked the ground though, or the location. That blue and red panelling they used to have (and might still have) made me want to vomit at times, it's disgusting. Blue and red don't go well together, as everyone should know.

I've been to very few London grounds. QPR in the 80s. Moyes' last game at Chelsea. Watford was snowed off after we had gone down the previous day, so that doesn't count.Does Oxford count? Terrible place, sat on scaffolding during R. Maxwell's era.
The 2 Wembleys once each.
As for Selhurst, it's my only Sky personal appearance which I've never seen. At the end of a 1-0 win I held my scarf above my head, and according to friends, the camera zoomed in on me. Aah, big moment huh?

Gutted for you. I remember thinking a couple of times that I must have been on telly at GP, back in the days when I'd occasionally borrow my brother's season tickets in the family enclosure for a few games, early Moyes era. He was only about four rows back, I used to see him and his brood regularly when there was a throw-in near them. Never got round to checking when I was there though.

As for London grounds, Upton Park is the one I miss. Loved it there. QPR I didn't mind, only went there once, in the 80's, although we did have a close encounter there  with a nasty-looking group of home fans looking for a scrap. An exaggerated southern accent got us out of trouble. Didn't like Stamford Bridge at all but that was back in the 80's (basically a different ground to today). Never went to Highbury or the Lane, weirdly. They were frequently all-ticket in the 80's which I generally couldn't be arsed with. Funny that, thinking about it - the idea that having to pre-purchase a ticket would put me off going to a game. Can't do it any other way now, of course.

The Home Counties, specifically Oxford, doesn't count. I never went there anyway but I know it was a dump. Luton has a better claim to be London as it has a "London" airport, and actually looks like iffy parts of London when you're there. Have been to Kenilworth Road a few times. I considered it grim in the 80's (even by 80's standards) but quaint now. Watford holds bad memories, the last game I ever went to with my arl fella when he wasn't well and the fucking coppers made us walk all the way around the allotments to the away end rather than let a wheezing old boy and his lads take a compassionate short cut down a street they'd closed off. I also weirdly saw Liverpool win there once, long story, I was between girlfriends and had too much time on my hands (and too many plastic Kopite mates down here).

Reading, I went to 7 or 8 years back when we beat them in one of the cups. Horrible flat-pack ground, and wanky supporters (clearly middle-class solicitors for the most part) walking around after the game with "you want some, Scouse?" looks on their faces because some ref decision or other made them angry. Hilarious, second only to MK Dons in their "please take us seriously, we're a proper club and we're really hard" desperation.

Just chucking a random one in there from further north, but still fairly local to me, I do miss Coventry's old ground. I liked the pubs round there, my kind of pubs, gritty and be careful whose pint you spill, but they were good as gold once you got playing pool with them.

I watched us in the home end at Highbury, not a great memory. League cup game, they played a load of kids but also Edu who bossed the game. Tommy G put us ahead but we lost 3-1. I did like Upton Park as well, closest London ground to Goodison in terms of feel and location. Always felt like I was going to get a kicking afterwards though. Actually watched our women’s team lose the FA cup to Charlton there as well in probably 2004/5. Fave London ground has to be Craven Cottage, lovely walk to the ground, fans are as tame as they come. Had a glorious season ender there in the sunshine with Da Judge, (Uwie, as he was back then) Griff, brummienomates and my mate Paul. We won 2-0 and it was decided over (quite) a few post-match Guinness that we would definitely win the upcoming FA final “because we’re fucking Everton” to quote Griff. It wasn’t to be, but the hope we had then was quite something. Feels a long time ago. I guess it was.

Tonteau wrote:I watched us in the home end at Highbury, not a great memory. League cup game, they played a load of kids but also Edu who bossed the game. Tommy G put us ahead but we lost 3-1. I did like Upton Park as well, closest London ground to Goodison in terms of feel and location. Always felt like I was going to get a kicking afterwards though. Actually watched our women’s team lose the FA cup to Charlton there as well in probably 2004/5. Fave London ground has to be Craven Cottage, lovely walk to the ground, fans are as tame as they come. Had a glorious season ender there in the sunshine with Da Judge, (Uwie, as he was back then) Griff, brummienomates and my mate Paul. We won 2-0 and it was decided over (quite) a few post-match Guinness that we would definitely win the upcoming FA final “because we’re fucking Everton” to quote Griff. It wasn’t to be, but the hope we had then was quite something. Feels a long time ago. I guess it was.

I remember that game well. Peak Wenger era, it was literally a load of kids against a full-strength Everton team that would go on to finish 4th and they embarrassed us. A young van Persie played, I remember. Their big boys then rogered us 7-0 late in the season after we'd secured 4th. A genuinely scary team, that.

The Cottage is another ground I've never been to, but I need to fix that as it does look lovely.

I used to enjoy Highbury, except we always lost, but I find the Emirates soulless. It's too big. If you're up in the gods, it takes half a second for the sound of the crowd to reach when a goal is scored. Weird. I hated the old Wembley, but the new Wembley is... well, a bit like the Emirates. I'm assuming Bramley Moore will be equally soulless. I actually like Stamford Bridge, it feels old school but the views are decent. Fulham is my favourite because its in a nice location with views of the river, though a cottager tells me you can't see the river any more cos of the huge new stand. West Ham is just shit on almost every level, though I was never particularly a fan of Upton Park either - too scary. Never been to Palace or the new Spurs ground. QPR is a right shit hole, but a daughter is going there on Saturday cos her boyfriend is a QPR fan.

Further afield, I went to Luton in the 80s and, judging by MOTD the other night, it hasn't changed. Hilariously shit, but that's probably a good thing for a team like Luton.

So, in summary, Fulham was the best. As Tonts said, tame as fuck, and a lovely walk through the park to the ground. Good pubs over the river in Putney too, full of rah girls and rower types. Last time I went, I got off at Hammersmith and walked along the river to get there. A bit different to a stroll down County Road. The biggest contrast to County Road though is going to Stamford Bridge, walking down the Kings Road from Sloane Square, or even strolling up from Fulham Broadway tube. It's another fucking country.

hairy cataract wrote:I used to enjoy Highbury, except we always lost, but I find the Emirates soulless.  It's too big.  If you're up in the gods, it takes half a second for the sound of the crowd to reach when a goal is scored. Weird.  I hated the old Wembley, but the new Wembley is... well, a bit like the Emirates. I'm assuming Bramley Moore will be equally soulless.  I actually like Stamford Bridge, it feels old school but the views are decent.  Fulham is my favourite because its in a nice location with views of the river, though a cottager tells me you can't see the river any more cos of the huge new stand.  West Ham is just shit on almost every level, though I was never particularly a fan of Upton Park either - too scary.  Never been to Palace or the new Spurs ground.  QPR is a right shit hole, but a daughter is going there on Saturday cos her boyfriend is a QPR fan.  

Further afield, I went to Luton in the 80s and, judging by MOTD the other night, it hasn't changed.  Hilariously shit, but that's probably a good thing for a team like Luton.  

So, in summary, Fulham was the best.  As Tonts said, tame as fuck, and a lovely walk through the park to the ground.  Good pubs over the river in Putney too, full of rah girls and rower types.  Last time I went, I got off at Hammersmith and walked along the river to get there.  A bit different to a stroll down County Road.  The biggest contrast to County Road though is going to Stamford Bridge, walking down the Kings Road from Sloane Square, or even strolling up from Fulham Broadway tube.  It's another fucking country.

I don't mind the new Wembley. I don't exactly love it either, but it's alright. I've been there twice, to watch, err, Blur, and Saracens play Harlequins at rugby. I think they did as good a job as they could with a stadium of that size, and I much prefer it to the old one. But then I've never been to Camp Nou, or Dortmund, so maybe they would change my opinion of what you can do with atmosphere in a mega stadium.

I must be a bit weird because that air of menace at Upton Park, especially for night games, is one of the things I loved about the place. It was the same when me and my lad went to a Rangers game when we were on holiday in Scotland. I've also always liked pubs with an edge to them. As long as it doesn't actually kick off, you understand, then I quite like that feeling of slight danger. A bit like watching a scary film, where you know everything will work out OK in the end because Denzel Washington is the good guy and he never dies.

I suspect that going to a lot of games in the hooligan halcyon days of the 80's and only ever having one minor issue to deal with that was a little bit scary, may have given me some sort of feeling of invulnerability. "(sniff), yeah, I saw a lot of action in the 80's. (stares manfully into the distance). Wasn't as bad as people say it was." Either that or I'm just really stupid. I can only imagine what I'd have been like if I'd visited Lebanon for some reason in the 80's when Islamic Jihad were chaining westerners to radiators for five years apiece. "Hey guys, what's happening? I'm Rotts, from England, lovely to meet...wow, that's a big gun..."

Your comment about the pubs in Putney brought back some pleasant memories (which I may have shared here before, but what the hell, I'm getting on a bit) of visiting one of my wife's old Uni mates and her fella when they lived in Richmond. Yeah, he got a PhD and got into Digital TV Design at just the right time, so they did OK for themselves. Lovely couple though. Anyway we'd go down to see them for the weekend and frequent pubs with these sprawling beer gardens going all the way down to the river, and it did genuinely feel like the Boat Race was about to start in ten minutes. It always feels slightly subversive when I, with my background, get to socialise with proper toffs. I did consider getting some crash-course elocution lessons before going to the bar, in case they rumbled me. As you say, another country.

I saw us play at Upton Park a few times as I used to live in Mile End/Bethnall Green. I always liked it. Thought the atmosphere was great, though it probably helped that we seemed to always win (this was mid 2000's.) The one thing that pissed me off though, was that as away fans you were cordoned off leaving the ground and had to walk past 2 or 3 tube stops before they would let you in. I was practicly home by that stage.

I saw us play Palace at their dump somewhere around early 90's.. if I recall.. maybe wrong.

hated it... horrible bunch of cunts.. nasty threatening wankers throwing all sorts of shite at us... I think we drew 0-0 but not sure... used to go to a lot of aways in the late 80 / early 90's..

... I do remember it was a nightmare getting out the craphole alive... those were the dangerous days to be an away fan in blue !!

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:I saw us play Palace at their dump somewhere around early 90's.. if I recall.. maybe wrong.

hated it... horrible bunch of cunts.. nasty threatening wankers throwing all sorts of shite at us... I think we drew 0-0 but not sure... used to go to a lot of aways in the late 80 / early 90's..

... I do remember it was a nightmare getting out the craphole alive... those were the dangerous days to be an away fan in blue !!

Interesting story by M4G, I used to be a massive Palace fan and would chase them bluenoses up and down the streets around the stadium. Those were some great days to be a Palace fan.

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:I saw us play Palace at their dump somewhere around early 90's.. if I recall.. maybe wrong.

hated it... horrible bunch of cunts.. nasty threatening wankers throwing all sorts of shite at us... I think we drew 0-0 but not sure... used to go to a lot of aways in the late 80 / early 90's..

... I do remember it was a nightmare getting out the craphole alive... those were the dangerous days to be an away fan in blue !!

It's strange isn't it, how experiences can be so different. After all, the places where I had my rare moments of aggro back in those days weren't the obvious ones like West Ham, Leeds or Millwall (I mean, I never went to Millwall, but that's not the point) but places where you wouldn't necessarily expect it - QPR, Leicester and Forest. But I never had any trouble in all the times I went to Selhurst. Like, Wimbledon only ever had nine fans and four of those were in their 90's, Wimbledon would only ever be a problem if you bumped into Vinny Jones or Mick Harford down an alleyway. But I never got any hassle from Palace or Charlton.

I don't know whether I had some enhanced sixth sense that kept me away from trouble in the 80's when everyone else seemed to be getting their heads stoved in on a weekly basis, or whether I was just really fortunate. Looking back, I genuinely had more aggro from coppers outside grounds than I did from oppo fans.

I have to say, when Millwall got promoted in the late 80's, that was the one away ground that I never, ever contemplated going to. Maybe it was the then-recent memories of when they tore up Luton's ground, but the idea of visiting Millwall back then just struck me as being borderline suicidal. Plain blue and white scarf, basically a southern accent, I might have even been able to blend in and claim myself as one of them if backed into a corner. But Millwall were the sort of headcases who probably fought each other if, say, they found another crew from the wrong part of the Isle of Dogs. "You're from Poplar? CAAHNTS."

Knight of Thorgothshire wrote:

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:I saw us play Palace at their dump somewhere around early 90's.. if I recall.. maybe wrong.

hated it... horrible bunch of cunts.. nasty threatening wankers throwing all sorts of shite at us... I think we drew 0-0 but not sure... used to go to a lot of aways in the late 80 / early 90's..

... I do remember it was a nightmare getting out the craphole alive... those were the dangerous days to be an away fan in blue !!

Interesting story by M4G, I used to be a massive Palace fan and would chase them bluenoses up and down the streets around the stadium. Those were some great days to be a Palace fan.

I knew I'd seen you before when we met at GP

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:

Knight of Thorgothshire wrote:

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:I saw us play Palace at their dump somewhere around early 90's.. if I recall.. maybe wrong.

hated it... horrible bunch of cunts.. nasty threatening wankers throwing all sorts of shite at us... I think we drew 0-0 but not sure... used to go to a lot of aways in the late 80 / early 90's..

... I do remember it was a nightmare getting out the craphole alive... those were the dangerous days to be an away fan in blue !!

Interesting story by M4G, I used to be a massive Palace fan and would chase them bluenoses up and down the streets around the stadium. Those were some great days to be a Palace fan.

I knew I'd seen you before when we met at GP

Same!

Da Judge wrote:

Made 4 Gwladys wrote:Ok, I think we have a chance here, but my new strategy which isn't doing too bad is to predict that we always get fucked over... so 2-0 to Palarse

COYB

Isn't that Bubbles strategy?


Copyright Law is such a difficult thing to adjudicate.

I laugh in the face of the law

A pretty expected starting line-up.

The game is on Peacock, NBC's streaming service that I have. Hopefully we'll get the win!!

similar to the west ham game but a very nervy 1-2 win here DCL & mcneil