SOBS V PALACE

The Lads went to Croydon, produced a disciplined performance, and brought away a point despite a frantic final ten minutes of Palace pressure, with Roefs flinging himself in the way of everything that got past our defence. 

Such are the current vagaries of train travel that my comfy departure from Bish Vegas (0827 if you're bothered) meant not meeting the remnants of the Durham bus until just gone noon at Victoria, where I happily reminded Ron that he'd never seen us win at Palace in eighteen attempts, while I'd seen the last three.

For the record, we'd won our last three with an aggregate of 8-1. Last time, Rob had nipped out for the half time pints. "Have I missed a goal?"

"Three".

Same again? We planned to send him for beers on 43. Suitably refreshed at the Duke of York with the SW Durham lot, we were on the train where the Palace fan we chatted with revealed he chose them because his dad wanted him to support Ipswich and his mam wanted him to support Arsenal - so he decided to follow the first team to beat Arsenal that season - fifty odd years ago.

Memories of 1997 against Wimbledon were stirred when passing THAT petrol station where a police motorbike became the stuff of Wearside legend. In our seats, and Mr Gilling explained his very early bus departure - two hours before I got up. The luxury of train travel.

In black (stripes, man!) we lined up .

Roefs 

Hume Alderete Mukiele Reinildo 

Xhaka (c) Sadiki Diarra 

Talbi Isidor Adingra

... and a bench of Patterson, Jones, Masuaku, Brobbey, Mayenda, Neil, Rigg, Geertruida, and Traore.

Thank the Lord for predictive text, but no Le Fee due to injury. Bah. The heat from the pre-match pyrotechnics fairly singed our hair as we sang We've Got +clap+ clap Granit Xhaka.

We faced the goal to our left and Palace kicked off - although I couldn't see the centre spot for the git big pillar. We matched them all over the field before a naughty late one on Alderete after his impressive spin and sprint, and we shot over following the free on 15. With the pitch so close to the seats, there was no need for ball children and the near touchline was out of sight.

Palace missed a sitter on 35 when clean through the middle, dinking it wide of Roefs and his right hand post, then an ambitious volley from Issy failed when he made contact with the defender's head instead of the ball. We nearly got through on 40 when a shot was blocked, then Adingra's curler was tipped away for a corner on our right. We won another free on 45 in the inside left channel as four added minutes were announced, but we made nothing of it.

Level at the break, which shouldn't have come as a surprise as we've neither conceded nor scored in the first half this season. Oh, and the famous cauldron of noise at Selhurst? Not a single chant - just a bloody drum. Poor show, Palace - but they made up for it by dedicating the game to the Bradley Lowery Foundation. Nice one. Not sure about the Crystals dance troupe, though. Give me the Dagenham Girl Pipers any day. 

There were no changes for the second half, and we upped the pace a bit while still content to use Alderete as the pivot for building attacks from the back. Surprisingly it was five minutes in before the first shot on target, which Roefs stopped and we blocked the follow up.

On the hour down came the rain onto an already well-watered pitch, and we came close when Issy couldn't quite hook Talbi's front post cross towards goal. We tried to shake things up by swapping Adingra for Brobbey, with Issy going left, and won a series of throws on our right which Mukiele hoyed into the box. There were a couple of corners for us, while Palace's centre forward worked on the principle that if you fling yourself to the ground often enough you'll get a decision. He got none, the lanky beggar.

As we entered the final ten we seemed to run out of steam a bit, and the home side went for the win. Which is when Roefs invoked his inner Monty and produced a series of impressive saves. In came Geertruida to add strength to the back line, with Sadiki sacrificed. The defence stood firm despite a few scary moments and four added minutes were announced, so we used up a bit of that by swapping Issy for Rigg.

0-0, and I'm happy with that despite the lack of chances created.

Man of the Match? It was probably going to be Alderete (despite one dodgy pass that put us under pressure in the first half) but Roefs, after his yellow on 78, stole the show and saved a point. 

The Roefs, the Roefs, the Roefs on fire!