Great Day for Palace

What a hit. What a fucking hit. Darren Ambrose is the modern day David Beckham and yesterday was no excepition. A full 36 yards out, only Super Daz would have the audacity to go for goal: yet he did. And what a goal – Friedel barely moved. Yet again, the signing of the season comes up trumps for the Palace.
Twas a bit of a sickner to concede in the 87th minute, even if Warnock’s post match rant was a little unnessecary, albeit comical. However we musn’t let that dissapoinment ruin what was a truly fantastic day – both in terms of performance and the atmosphere around the ground.
Danns and Ertl were both absolutely immense, and C-Lord as he is affectionately known produced a blinder of a defensive display to outmuscle both Heskey and Carew for the entire 90 minutes. It was ultimately the quality of the ball in that cost us dear, but it could have been worse had it not been for Speroni. Then again, that’s hardly a surprise.
The atmosphere was utterly brilliant. At one point even the notoriously quiet “family stand” was bouncing, an incredibly rare sight at Selhurst. Block B on Wednesday should be good, but yesterday was something special. Listening to 606 last night, and I hear a Villa fan praising his teams support. What planet is he on? For a start, they barely sung a song all game, and to only bring 2,000 away to an FA Cup 5th round tie is absolutely awful. For a team the size of Villa that have a genuine chance of winning the competition, I thought it was a poor turnout.
Was great to see Coppell yesterday: and his refusal to rule out returning to Palace is obviously very pleasing. Warnock has the job for as long as he wants it in my opinion, but if he were to leave, then Coppell would be the obvious target. I suspect he would come in on very low wages indeed. It’d certainly give a lift to the whole club if he was to return, such is his reputation in SE25.
Playing the Semi Final at Wembely really devalues the tradition of the Cup, but the turnout yesterday (20,000 my arse), indicates that it still holds some importance for fans. Certainly if you gave me a choice between reaching the playoffs and winning the FA Cup, then the playoffs would be put on hold for a season. We have a genuine chance of getting to the Quarter final now and then who knows what might happen: Villa will be looking towards their Carling Cup final, and with several thousand Palace fans set to make the journey, a shock could well be on the cards.
Why would I value the FA Cup more highly than the league? Clearly from an economical point of view, getting promoted/avoiding relegation would be so much more benefical to the club. However, the buzz of beating Premier league opposition, the possibility of Wembley, and the long lasting memory’s that have already been created by this cup run mean that the FA Cup is something that I absolutely love. It may have lost some of it’s value, but certainly amongst the “smaller teams”, it creates an incredible amount of excitement.