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Thursday, April 08, 2010

R's on the Road To.......... Crystal Palace.


This Saturday sees a massive six pointer at the bottom of the table as Crystal Palace play host to fellow strugglers QPR.
In what will be Neil Warnocks return to Selhurst Park so soon after leaving the club for Rangers' this promises to be an exciting and intriguing encounter which also sees Paul Hart take charge of Palace against a Rangers' side he failed to make an impact on during his 28 day spell at the club.
Here are a few things that may help you out in the build up to Saturday's important game.




Club History.


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Crystal Palace were formed in 1905 by workers at The Crystal Palace. In their first season in the Southern League Second Division in 1905-06 they were crowned Champions. In 1920 the club joined the Football League Third Division and won the Championship at the very first attempt.
In 1924 the club moved to the purpose built Selhurst Park stadium and their first game in the stadium a crowd of 25,000 watched Palace lose 1-0 to Sheffield Wednesday.
It wasn’t until 1969 that the club reached the top flight and managed to survive three seasons there until they were relegated in two successive seasons in 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons. However the club were promoted back up to the top flight after successful promotion campaigns in 1976-77 and then 1978-79.
The 80’s proved to be telling in the clubs history when Ron Noades became chairman of the club but in his first season the club were relegated once again and didn’t return until the won promotion via the play offs in the 1988-89 season.
Despite a uneventful season in the league in their return to the top flight it was the cup where the club really flourished and they reached their first ever FA Cup final. In an exciting and very eventful game against Manchester United the game finished 3-3 and went to a replay where it was a contrast to the first game and Lee Martin’s goal won the cup for United and left Palace wondering what would of been.
In the season that followed Palace got off to a flier and were 3rd in the league with two games in hand on their rivals. However, following a program called “Great Britain United” chairman Ron Noades made disparaging comments about the work ethic of the clubs black players, something Noades insists that his comment were taken out of context. Following this row Palace striker Ian Wright left the club for Arsenal and Palace saw their season fizzle out and ended up finishing in 10th place, ensuring the club took their place in the first season of the Premier League.
The Eagles got relegated during the first season of the newly formed top flight but made an immediate return the following season. Palace yo-yoed between the divisions top flight twice more before entering administration in 1998 under owner Mark Goldberg’s spending spree in trying to achieve promotion back to the Premier League was unsuccessful.
Simon Jordan then took the ownership of the club and was able to see the club promoted to the Premier League once more but were relegated once again before appointing Neil Warnock as the manager with the task of getting the club back into the Premier League. Warnock’s charges were flying high at the start of this season back due to financial constraints the club entered administration for the second time in it’s history in January this year and after over a month of battling against the administrator Warnock decided to join QPR and his replacement was QPR’s manager in January, Paul Hart.


The Stadium.

Current capacity – 26,309.

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Crystal Palace have lived at Selhurst park since 1924 and has had two new stands constructed in recent years. The most recently built is the two tired Holmesdale Road Stand which is situated to the left of the away section. This stand looks pretty impressive with its curved roof and houses many of the Palace faithful that will provide at lot of banter for the afternoon. Opposite this stand is the Whitehorse Lane Stand which is unusual in its appearance. Behind its single tier is two rows of executive boxes and then a video screen hangs on the top of the roof, which looks like it originally wasn’t meant to go there but was just placed there on the off chance.
The two stands that run down either of the flanks are very dated. The Main Stand is where many of the Clubs executives will be sat but where most of the action will be is in the Arthur Wait Stand. Away fans will be housed in the left side of the stand and to the right will be many more of the Palace faithful and much more banter will be thrown both ways during the course of the afternoon I’m sure.
If you are sat at the back of this stand you will have wooden seats to sit on or may not to sit on as a lot of them have gone missing in recent times. Also if you are sat at the back you will also have pillars to contend with and could obstruct your view during the game.
The concourse is very tight and has only one place to get refreshments from so make sure you stock up before you enter the ground otherwise you could find yourself in a queue for quite a while.

The History between the teams.

At Crystal Palace (44)

Crystal Palace 15
QPR 10
Draw 19

Rangers’ go to Selhurst Park looking for their first away win at Palace in over 20 years! The last victory came on 2nd December 1989 in a 3-0 win that completed the double over Palace that season having won 2-0 back in August.
Rangers’ have drawn on their last two visits to Selhurst Park with Scott Sinclair scoring in a 1-1 draw two seasons ago and then last year a 0-0 bore draw was played out between the sides.

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How to get there.

By Car: - The postcode for Selhurst Park is SE25 6PU.
There are probably three or four different ways that you could reach Selhurst Park and would take an eternity to write them all down so I will give you two routes that you can use.
If you are in the London area is would be easier to use the following route, my starting point is Loftus Road. This link will give you all the roads and directions you need to get to Selhurst and this is also printable.

http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp#fromNode=308260052019702|W12,%20Shepherd%27s%20Bush|
STREET|521928|181195|toNode=308260063489878|Crystal%20Palace%20FC
,%20London|STREET|533323|168417

If travelling from the North or West then this is the easiest route that I can suggest.

Get yourself onto the M25 Southbound and come off at junction 7, heading up the A23 towards Croydon. After 7 miles you will reach a set of traffic lights (Fiveways Corner) turn right here and join the A232. Three miles up the road you will come up to a roundabout, take the first exit which will join you onto the A212. Follow signs for Selhurst/Thornton Heath for the next three miles and you will then reach a mini roundabout, turn right here and then take your next right and you will arrive at your destination.

Parking is an absolute nightmare in the area with most of the streets around the ground being residential and you will occasionally be lucky to have a pay and display area which will allow you to park there for up to four hours. Allow time in your journey to be able to park up if you are driving.

By Train: - The closest stations to the ground are Selhurst and Thornton Heath, either way you will have a 10-15 minute walk to the stadium.
Please note that Crystal Palace station is no-where near the ground.
To get to the ground from Selhurst station, depending on the exit you use, walk over the railway bridge and take a right down Edith Road keep walking down here until you reach Eileen Road which will be on your right. At the end of Eileen Road take a left onto Saxon Road and walk until you reach the end of here and join onto White Horse Road. Once to join this road take a right and continue walking up this road until you reach the High Street and take the left onto there and you should see the stadium in front of you.
From Thornton Heath Station you take a left when u come out of the station and head up Brigstock Road and take a right onto the High Street and follow this road all the way until you see the stadium on your left hand side.


Pubs 'n' Grub.

The most favourite choice of pub for away fans on their trip to Selhurst Park is The Railway Telegraph. It’s located around 100yards down the road from Thornton Heath Station. Another favourite is a Wetherspoons which is directly opposite Thornton Heath Station, either pub will do the trick on a match day.
As for food, on your walk to Selhurst you will encounter many chip shops and kebab shops to feed you. I can honestly say I’m unaware of any other facilities apart from these.

2 Comments:

  • At 4:05 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    a Palace fan in peace here... if you like hot/caribbean food... then i suggest you try the Tasty Jerk which is on White Horse Lane. If coming from Thornton Heath, you'll walk past it with it on your right just before you reach the stadium (you'll also smell it before you see it.)
    It doesn't look like much but its downright amazing... make sure you have a tissue though cos it gets the old nose juice flowing.

    failing that, if you want just a fish and chip lunch, just before the tasty jerk, on your left is Doneagles... a real good chippy

    enjoy

     
  • At 2:13 pm, Blogger Lee said…

    Thank you very much for that, the Tasty Jerk was tried and got a massive seal of approval.

     

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