Charity Parsimony begins at home

While the miserly defences of Championship promotion contenders QPR and Swansea have been much feted, the recent achievements of Crystal Palace’s back four have been rather less trumpeted. Here’s Eagles fan Will to give them and the club’s new owners the credit and recognition they deserve.

Dougie Freedman has a problem. It’s difficult to nail a “This is Selhurst” sign onto the plastic tunnel that emerges from the corner of the Holmesdale Road stand. With yesterday’s 1-0 victory in the six-pointer over Middlesbrough, struggling Crystal Palace have not conceded a goal in their last seven home games, and are unbeaten at Selhurst in eight.

Since their remarkable escape from relegation at the expense of Sheffield Wednesday on the last day of the previous season (after being docked ten points for going into administration), Palace’s new owners have managed to establish a new, business-like approach to the foolhardy pursuit of running a football club. After the incompetence and hubris of the Goldberg and Jordan eras, a consortium of wealthy fans eventually, and reluctantly, stepped in to rescue the club at the 11th hour; and they seemed to have made the right appointment in George Burley to start the rebuilding process.

However, a bottom three position at Christmas and the worst goal difference in the league also demonstrated that the CPFC2010 consortium had the guts to make the tough decisions when required. Burley got his P45, and after interviewing ten hopefuls, and in a brave move, caretaker manager and Palace legend Freedman got the nod for his first foray into the top job. Brave indeed; a clue to Palace’s current league position may lie in the 20 goals they have shipped in the nine away games they’ve played since the home run started.

But Freedman talks a good game, and seems to have injected a certain steel into the team. Some good business in the transfer window may also help to improve the goal tally, and Palace fans are currently riding a wave of optimism.

Ben

Ben is a long-suffering Newcastle Utd supporter (is there any other kind?) who co-founded and co-wrote Black & White & Read All Over, a blog that, over the course of a decade, chronicled the ups, downs, chaos and calamity of the club he has the misfortune to follow. Since the blog hung up its boots in May 2014 (note: not as a mark of respect for Shola Ameobi leaving St James’ Park), he has contented himself with sporadic, splenetic Twitter outbursts and shamefully rare contributions to The Two Unfortunates. He is currently haunted by visions of Joe Kinnear returning to the club for a third spell and pondering whether he’ll live to see another victory over the Mackems, but at least has a cardboard coathanger with Robert Lee’s head on it for consolation.