Season Catch-Up

Hi All!

Okay first things first, welcome to my blog, as I'm sure you've picked up on by now, this blog is all about Crystal Palace Football Club and their progress, fixtures etc. The majority of posts through this blog will be match previews but time to time there'll be the odd update on my thoughts and feelings of the mighty Eagles!

That being said, let's jump straight into it!

Catch-up:
Now it's no secret that Palace's away form has been "shy of brilliant" to put it nicely, lately but I have to say that having gone ahead in all three of our away fixtures things are definitely looking up. Unfortunately we let the win slip through our fingers against Peterborough and were edged out at Leeds, but our win at Hull has given the players a big boost which seems to show whenever we play. So I for one am looking forward to the  rest of the season's away games and hope that we can get a lot more points than last season, away from Selhurst Park!
As for our home record...remarkable!! We haven't lost at home since the last day of the season, admittedly we were thumped by Nottingham Forest 3-0, but since then Selhurst has been a fortress. Also, we have not lost in a midweek home fixture since March 2010 when we lost to this season's moneybags, Leicester City, that's eighteen months solid on a Tuesday night! So with two league wins, one league draw and two cup wins at home so far this season, the home run looks set to continue!

The win against Wigan earlier in the week was reported as a "shock" win in the cup but to me it seemed the favorable outcome. With our home record as good as it is and Wigan not being the highest flying Premier League side, this game was always going to be close.

Palace were off to a flying start, with Murray hitting the crossbar early on and Darren Ambrose netting his first goal of the season on the 23rd minute, Palace definitely put Wigan on the back foot. To add to the pressure on the visitors, 17 year old Jonathan Williams scored his first competitive goal for the Eagles, and this was all just after half an hour. They kept the pressure up as the first half progressed. Paddy McCarthy (who scored against Leeds at the weekend) came close with a header & Murray once again smacked the woodwork with a superb header that had Wigan keeper Al-Habsi at full stretch. It was one way traffic and the 2-0 lead was well deserved at the break.
The second half however, saw the Latics come out fighting and they had several chances in the second half, best of which saw Patrick van Aanholt's strike from the edge of the box rattle the crossbar.      
Although it took an ex-Eagle in the form of Ben Watson to bring Wigan a consolation goal in stoppage time, Lewis Price punching only as far as the midfielder, who drove the ball on the first touch into the back of the net. The game ended 2-1 and gave Palace their fourth home win of the season and second in the cup. This progresses them to third round for the first time in 6 years! Palace will face-off against Championship rivals Middlesbrough just three days after the two teams meet in the league this Saturday!