Crystal Palace’s 1-1 draw with bitter rivals Brighton and Hove Albion on Tuesday night was fairly indicative of what to expect from the Eagles for the remainder of the season. They put on a tentative display interjected with enough flashes of excitement to keep the supporters satisfied. A second half penalty apiece ensured those fans in attendance had something to clutch onto after witnessing a game that largely failed to live up to the pre-match hype. Barring the two penalties and a bit of man-bags at ten paces that resulted in referee, Stuart Attwell, brandishing four yellow cards in the space of as many minutes, there was little to warm the cockles of the 17,271 hardy souls who had braved the sub-zero temperatures.
The Palace-Brighton rivalry has always been considered something of an oddity by the wider football world. It is viewed by those outside of the two clubs in much the same way World of Warcraft enthusiasts perceive The Only Way Is Essex; they’re aware of its existence but are unsure where it came from or what exactly the point of it is. A dearth of encounters between the two clubs in recent years has seen the rivalry fade somewhat from its peak during the 1970s and ‘80s. For the majority of Palace and Brighton supporters though, whenever the teams do meet, it is still the biggest game of the season.
Now that the Eagles have completed fixtures against both Brighton and their more geographically logical rivals, Millwall, Palace fans find themselves at a bit of a loss as to what they can look forward to for the remainder of the season. This feeling was exacerbated when their chance of playing in the Carling Cup final evaporated into Welsh air. Not since Peter Taylor piloted a mass curse for insomnia at Selhurst Park in 2006/07 have Palace approached the final third of the season without a play-off push or relegation dogfight to look forward to.
Few Palace fans would trade the position they are currently in with the one they were in this time last year; a time when they were frantically analysing upcoming fixtures to see which games would yield the points needed for survival. Settling into mid-table mediocrity so early in the season is just not something Palace supporters are used to, leading to a little restlessness creeping on to the terraces.
Some of this restlessness emanates from the tactics Palace manager, Dougie Freedman, chooses to employ. Freedman’s insistence on playing two defensive midfielders, even in home games, has frequently seen Palace open the scoring in matches and then attempt to defend a one-goal lead for anything up to 90 minutes. These tactics were effective in avoiding relegation last season but the fans have come to expect more after witnessing the club reach the dizzy heights of third place during October last year on the back of some swaggering displays.
Since sweeping Ipswich Town aside with a swashbuckling 1-0 victory at Portman Road, putting Palace within touching distance of the automatic promotion places, there has been little consistency to the Eagles’ league results. Narrow victories every few games since have kept the club in no real danger of dropping towards the relegation places. At the same time, it has been Palace’s failure in keeping hold of one goal advantages that has prevented them from flirting with the play-off places.
This lack of consistency can be attributed in part to the absence of teenage prodigy Jonathan Williams. It seems slightly ludicrous that a team could be so reliant on an 18-year old midfielder who only made his debut last August but Williams’s performances contributed greatly to the club’s blistering start to the season. Much like his illustrious Hollywood namesake, Williams has the ability to orchestrate the midfield and together with fellow academy products Wilfred Zaha and Sean Scannell, he formed a youthful triumvirate capable of tearing opponents apart. When Williams suffered a broken leg in November, Palace were suddenly deprived of the creative spark required to unlock most Championship defences. The win percentage of 62% for games in which Williams played compared to 35% in those he hasn’t goes some way to demonstrating his importance to the side.
Williams’s absence has underlined the fact that although Palace have come a long way in 12 months, they still have a little further to go before they’re likely to seriously challenge for promotion. With players such as Zaha, Scannell and the erratic Darren Ambrose, Palace have the talent that is more than capable of propelling them up the league. The challenge for Freedman though is working out how best to utilise them in his favoured systems.
So what’s left for the Eagles to look forward to this season then? The prospect of finishing above Millwall (probable) and Brighton (possible) should keep the players, management and fans alike motivated to have as strong a final third of the season as possible. A top 10 finish is probably a realistic aim but with young Williams due to return to the first team in late February, maybe the Eagles will dare to soar a little higher.
Written by Martin Fitzgerald, We Are Going Up’s Crystal Palace blogger
Martin tweets at @martinfitzgeral
