" Match Report Crystal Palace v Cardiff C "

Over 1000 Cardiff fans made their way to what must be the worse trip of the season. Crystal Palace is not an easy ground to get to by road or rail and as it was a Tuesday night I would say over 1000 supporters is pretty good. So well done to all of us who went and even more so for getting behind the team and reframing from booing. Applauding the team at the end was good as well considering what the result was. Would it have not been nice for our manager to come over and applaud us after his outburst?
The same team started as it did against Ipswich. Bywaters making his 2nd appearance in goal with the back for in front of him of McNaughton, Keinan, Hudson and Quinn. Whittingham and McPhail took the central midfield roles with Chopra and JET on the wings. In attack there was the new boy Bothroyd, spitting image of the original Jay, and our captain Bellamy. I’m having difficulty understanding the logic of playing Chopra on the wing as this has failed big time twice before.


The home side game plan from the start was to defend deeply in numbers and catch the Cardiff on the counter attack. This they did very well as they defended in numbers which frustrated the Cardiff build up play. They were quick to counter attack down the middle and had the better chances of the half. However most of their chances failed to hit the target.

After seeing a couple of chances go wide Bywaters was eventually forced into action after 10 minutes when he forced a point blank shot from 6 yards around the post.
Cardiff tried to get into the game with patient passing football in midfield. Whitts and McPhail seemed to be orchestrating the moves but their final through balls failed to reach their targets. This allowed the Palace to quickly counter attack but they only managed one more effort on goal with a 35 yard shot that trickled into Bywaters arms.
Eventually Cardiff did get a shot on goal on the half hour mark. JET now playing on the right collected the ball on the touch line 20 yards out and managed to work his way infield. From 25 yards out he tried his luck but his effort just about reached the arms of the awaiting home side goalkeeper.
The remainder of the half saw only one more effort on goal and that was from the home side who successfully dealt with the Whitts McPhail build up play. From another counter attack one of their strikers found himself in space in the Cardiff area. He snapped at his shot and the ball went comfortable wide for the Cardiff.

The referee brought the half to an end to what could only be described as a non plus 45 minutes for the Bluebirds.
The second half saw Cardiff come out a different team. They dominated the game and the home side were forced to defend deeply. Most of the danger from Cardiff came from JET on the right wing. He had a shot blocked just inside the area that looked like it was going in. Moments later he picked up a ball on the touchline and once again worked his way to the area. Creating enough space from the edge of the area he sent a vicious shot towards the Palace goal resulting in their keeper palming the ball against the post.
Continuous Cardiff pressure saw a 25 yard effort from McNaughton go wide of the post, he looked like he scuffed the shot. However McPhail from practically the same spot certainly did not scuff his effort as it made way to the Palace goal only for the keeper to tip it over.

Then Cardiff had their best chance to take the lead. An in swinging cross into the Palace area was met by a Cardiff head but the ball hit the crossbar. From the scramble that followed the referee saw a handball by a Palace player and pointed to the spot. As the Cardiff faithfully prayed in the away section that was next to the goal Whitts stepped up and slammed the ball into the post.
The away support had been vocal up to then but you could just feel it was not to be and quite a lot of us prepared for the worse.

Palace realising that their opponents were not going to score they started to open up their play. From an attack down the left wing a deep cross to the far post was headed back into the 6 yard area. Cardiff scrambled to clear their lines but the ball fell to a Palace foot on the 18 yard line. A low shot saw an excellent palmed save from Bywaters. However the ball fell to another Palace foot that put it into an empty net. Fortunately for the visitors the linesman put his flag up for offside.

Cardiff tried to re-dominate the game but the Palace confident grew. As the game went into the last 10 minutes they got their brake. From what looked like a broken down attack the ball bobbled around the Cardiff area. The ball fell to a Palace foot on 12 yards and somehow it trickled into the Cardiff net.

Cardiff then brought on Parkin in a desperate move to salvage something from the game. However as much as they piled forward they never looked like scoring. The game ended with another game that should have been won lost.

Summing up: Are the Gods against us? I would say so after that game. Frustrating going onto annoying is the best way to describe it. My fear is that we could quite easily lose confidence if we don’t get a win soon. Another roller coaster on its way.

cheers ian, goood read, im glad you stuck it on as my memory of last nights game is very jaded

cheers ian, goood read, im glad you stuck it on as my memory of last nights game is very jaded

You must be sick you cant remember the game

Good and accurate report only thing I strongly disagree with was about our support.
Fair play for us travelling in numbers but there was a hell of a lot of idiots out who were constantly on the players and Jones back as early as 10mins into the game
Me and my mates moved 3 times to different parts of the away end and it was no better in any of them.
Last night was the first game I just didnt want to be there because of our fans, calling our own players a disgrace, C*nt, T@ts during the game....hardly a way of getting the team to push for a win. I was massively embarrassed last night because of those fans. Thankfully we also had a lot of good fans trying to support the team although the atmosphere was still lacking.

Should have stood with me Luke. I ended up with a load from the offical supporters coach. They gave excellent support.

Yeah there where people giving good support, I dont mean to generalise about all our away fans as generally I think our away support is brilliant, one of the best however last night there seemed to be to many there to give abuse from the start rather than support the team which saddened me

I didn't here any of our support giving the team or Jones abuse so if i coulden't here it then i doubt the players could. In fact i didn't here anything from our fans. Where we were we tried but we were on our own Claire was giving some Palace fans abuse (from a lady as well)

Cheers Ian, Really appreciate your match Reports , DJ only recognises us when he wants slate us all.

Was with Dafydd and lewis91 yesterday and have to say it was a top away. Best chant by far, pedo an his rent boys. Billy didn't look too happy!

Top trip an looking forward to the next one!

Was with Dafydd and lewis91 yesterday and have to say it was a top away. Best chant by far, pedo an his rent boys. Billy didn't look too happy!

Top trip an looking forward to the next one!

Were you standing near me ?

I was mate, kid in the white jacket i was

Thanks for the report Ian.

[quote="Richie"]Was with Dafydd and lewis91 yesterday and have to say it was a top away. Best chant by far, pedo an his rent boys. Billy didn't look too happy!

Top trip an looking forward to the next one![/quote

I agree about the atmosphere every time we'd start a song it would faze out out after a minute or so, an go quiet again.

fair play palace they go behind ther team in the left stand behind goals was alot of noise, had the drum out aswel. considering they was on back foot most the game.

Cheers Ian


Look forward to todays Match Report.