When the final whistle eventually blew at Selhurst Park yesterday, the overwhelming emotion that swept around the ground was one of manic relief. Following Neil Danns’ strike after only 68 seconds, we had managed, through a mixture of frantically desperate defending and utter perseverance, to hang on to the single goal lead for the full 98 minutes of play and secure a win that all but sees us safe going into the final two games of the season.
Having made the trip to Doncaster on Good Friday, you would probably forgive me if I said I wasn’t brimming with confidence going into yesterday’s game, the football played by both sides at the Keepmoat Stadium wasn’t exactly flamboyant, Pablo Counago put in one of the least enthusiastic shifts I have seen from any Palace player in living memory, and until he was replaced by Steffen Iversen midway through the 2nd half we showed absolutely no sign of threatening the home team’s goal.
Despite that, we did manage to gain a clean sheet and with it a very valuable away point, not that the performance did anything to dampen the spirits of our travelling fans, who once again surpassed themselves with their support of the team. Mixed in with all the usual Palace songs, came the reassuring tones of a certain Bob Marley’s classic, “Three Little Birds”, a song which, although not a previous terrace anthem, seemed to sum up exactly what everyone was thinking prior to the game in extremely deft fashion, with the infinitely simple chorus reverberating around the away end periodically before, during, and for some time after the game, thanks to the actions of the Holmesdale Fanatics. For those of you yet to hear this inspired little number, don’t worry about a thing, there will be a link at the end of this blog. (Sorry for the awful joke.)
It was with the lyrics of the reggae classic ringing in my ears that I wandered up the Holmesdale Road with a surprising air of confidence yesterday afternoon. It is a well-known fact that Palace tend to do rather well against the supposed “bigger” sides and with 5,000 Leeds fans already thinking they had the three points in the bag I couldn’t help but have a sneaking suspicion that we were getting ready to upset the apple cart in more ways than one.
Obviously the pre-match nerves still set in just before kick-off but, I had little over a minute of actual football to digest before I was bouncing up and down with joy at having taken the lead. It was a goal which seemed to shellshock Leeds to an extent and without the services of Luciano Becchio the travelling side appeared to be bereft of attacking ideas in the opening 45 minutes. We played some great stuff, and could have been two goals to the good if the extremely hard working Jermaine Easter had managed to keep his close range header on target, not that any of us were complaining when the interval came.
The 2nd half was a very different affair, Leeds came out having clearly received a severe dressing down from Simon Grayson at the break and began pouring forward in far greater numbers as the game wore on, with the recurring theme throughout the final 30 minutes appearing to be both teams taking part in a pre-arranged training game of defence versus attack in which we sat inside our own box and invited the away side to have an infinite amount of chances to wipe away our clean sheet.
When the game finally reached the 90th minute, the fourth official took it upon himself to crank up the anxiety to inhumane levels by informing the 20,000 strong crowd that there would be a further five minutes of additional time, which, with Claude Davis on the pitch meant literally anything was still potentially possible inside our box. Having seen out the five minutes, Neil Danns flew into a challenge on the halfway line which resulted in him being given his marching orders and enabling Leeds to have one final throw of the dice, the ball sailed into our box for what felt like the 1,267th time in 15 minutes, only for it to find its way clear, prompting the referee to finally bring the game to an end and spark the huge outpourings of aforementioned relief amongst all three of the sold-out home stands.
With Preston relegated, and Sheffield United and Scunthorpe hanging on to their Championship status by goal difference alone, it would take a monumental collapse for us to be playing League 1 football next season, something which, although it is extremely unlikely, I know a lot of the people reading this will still have in the back of their minds.
This season has, just like the one before it, been a roller-coaster of emotions from start to finish, but having seen the team dig in like they did yesterday afternoon I am more positive than ever about the direction this football club is going in. Fans, players, management and owners are truly united as one, there are numerous exciting youngsters coming up through the ranks and we are looking at a full pre-season under a manager who everyone is completely behind in Dougie Freedman, hopefully the formality of Championship survival will arrive in due time and we can really begin to build for the future, but even if the unthinkable happens from here.
“Don’t worry about a thing, cos every little thing, is gonna be alright”
Until next time…
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