After a few sessions with my Newcastle United mates to get the home defeat against West Ham out of my system, I’m now looking forward to playing Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
These are another club and fanbase I have very little time for.
Based in Selhurst in the Borough of Croydon, South London, Crystal Palace became a professional club in 1905, but their origins can be traced back into the 1800s.
They have never won a cup in their history but have been promoted as Champions from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tiers.
On the 2nd of September 1972, the Newcastle United legend that is Tony Green, had his career ended against Crystal Palace following a challenge by Mel Blythe.
The flamboyant Malcolm Allison took over as Palace manager in 1973.
Big Mal’s team included Peter Taylor, who had the distinction of representing England under Don Revie while Crystal Palace were still a 3rd Division side.
Terry Venables also managed Palace between 1976 and 1980, before Allison came back for a short second spell at the helm.
Crystal Palace reached the FA Cup Final in 1990 and should have beaten Manchester United, ensuring that the Red Devils loathed manager (just plain old Alex Ferguson back then) got the sack.
Oh what a favour The Eagles would have done the rest of English football.
One of Newcastle’s most dislikable former managers, Alan Pardew, took them back to Wembley to face Man Utd again in the 2016 FA Cup Final.
After taking the lead late on, Palace then contrived to blow their chance of glory once again.
Players that have played for both Newcastle and Palace include Darren Ambrose, Yohan Cabaye and Andros Townsend.
Living in the shadows of their more illustrious London neighbours (Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and West Ham) rankles with the Palace fanbase.
They even threw a ‘hissy’ after the Newcastle United takeover in 2021 and there were plenty of jealous human rights hypocrites out in force at Selhurst Park three years ago.
Crystal Palace Fans Balloons
The term ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’, couldn’t have been more appropriate to describe the Crystal Palace fans’ crass small-mindedness.
Steve Parish is the Crystal Palace chairman and he led Newcastle a merry old dance during negotiations to potentially bring Marc Guehi to Tyneside in the summer.
Oliver Glasner is their current manager and their star men include Eberechi Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta.
They had a decent draw at Aston Villa in their last match but in my opinion aren’t really anything special.
Crystal Palace fans are noisy beggars, even though they haven’t ever had much to shout about down the years.
It will be bloody wonderful if we can shut them up at the weekend.