George Burley was named Crystal Palace manager earlier this summer and has an excellent record at this level. He began his managerial career at Ayr United but made his name at Ipswich where he lead them to promotion in 2000 and his side were unlucky to be relegated a year later. His next club was Derby country where his side again played some excellent football and he took a struggling side to the playoffs in his first season where they were unfortunate to lose to Preston in the semi final. He left Derby under a cloud after a dispute with the Director of Football and joined Hearts for a brief spell. His side won eight of their first ten games including a 4-0 win over local rivals Hibernian. He was sacked by the club after a dispute with the owner. Southampton were his next port of call where he took them to the playoffs losing on penalties to his old club Derby. His success at club level saw him move onto the International scene with Scotland but fall outs with several players saw him sacked after two years and his reputation damaged. He has always produced good footballing sides
though and will look to get his side playing exciting attacking
football now that the clubs financial woes appear to be behind them.
Last season was a tough one for Crystal Palace with the rug pulled from under them in January and a season that looked set to end in glory almost ended in disaster. Neil Warnock was the man in charge at Palace and with limited funds he had put together a decent side bit one which lacked the firepower to challenge at the top. They were still more than good enough to compete though and after a nervous start to the season they soon found their way with the goals of Darren Ambrose from midfield a massive bonus. Victor Moses was the start of the side producing some incredible displays to steer them away from trouble and on a winning run which saw them on the brink of the playoffs by January. The club though was placed into administration and all hope of promotion was gone. Results were still decent and they remained around mid table and even went on a Cup run reaching the fifth round of the FA Cup and drawing a thrilling game with Aston Villa. Neil Warnock's departure along with the sale of Victor Moses saw them begin to struggle and the ten point deduction really began to hit home. Under new manager Paul Hart they struggled to get the wins they needed and went into the last day knowing defeat would see them fall into League one. They stood strong though and produced a magnificent performance to win the match 3-2 and survive and after looking doomed off the pitch they were rescued with a last minute takeover by a group of fans. It was certainly an exciting season at Palace and one that won't be forgotten in a while.
Neil Danns Neil Danns is an exciting midfield player who has been a regular at Palace for the last few years. He signed for £600,000 from Birmingham City after helping them to promotion during his two year spell. He can play on either wing but looks most comfortable in a three man central midfield. He is a player with plenty of skill on the ball and a good eye for a pass. His goalscoring is an aspect of his game which needs work but he has chipped in with some spectacular goals in recent years scoring eight for Palace last season. Danns is also hoping for a career away from
football and released his first single entitled Survive in March
2010. He has a musical background as his Dad was in an act which
reached the qualifing stages of the Eurovision Song Contest.
A season of stability on and off the pitch would be a step in the right direction for Palace fans, they almost didn't have a club to support a few short weeks ago so I would imagine the demands on George Burley to deliver success will not come from the terraces and they should enjoy a decent season. It's amazing what positive vibes from the crowd can do and Palace certainly have a very noisy following at the moment making Selhurst Park a tough place to visit. They will again have to look around the bargain basement for players but do have some good players who will be key to their chances. If they can keep hold of Ambrose, Danns and Clyne. They have some good youngsters coming through such as Scannel and Ertl which bodes well but they have lost some experience with Hill, Derry and Butterfield all leaving this summer. They may need a few older heads brought in to bring it all together but I'd expect Palace to do well and finish around mid table and given time I think Burley will build a side capable of challenging higher in the table.
The outbreak of World War I led to the
Admiralty requisitioning the Crystal Palace and the club was forced
to move to the home of West Norwood FC, Herne Hill. Three years
later the club moved again to The Nest due to the folding of Croydon
Common FC. The club joined the Football League
Third Division in its 1920-21 season, finishing as champions and
gaining promotion to Football League Second Division. Palace moved
to the purpose-built stadium Selhurst Park in 1924, the ground the
club plays at today. The opening fixture at Selhurst Park was against
Sheffield Wednesday and, in front of a crowd of 25,000, Palace lost
0-1. Palace finished 21st that season and
was relegated to the Third Division South where it would stay until
1957-58 when it finished in the bottom half of the table and then
joined the newly formed Fourth Division. This was alongside the other 11 bottom
half clubs of Third Division South and 12 bottom half clubs of Third
Division North. In 1960-61 Palace was promoted out of the lowest
tier of English League Football and this proved a turning point
in the club's history as promotions followed in 1963-64 and 1968-69,
taking it back to Division 2 and then Division 1.
Andy Gray joined QPR in 1989 before
moving onto Palace where he helped them to the FA Cup final. Perhaps the best known though
is Clive Allen who is a legend at QPR. The goal machine scored 72
goals in his two spells at Rangers and spent a season at Selhurst
Park in 1980/81. The current squad now boasts four
former Crystal Palace players. Mikele Leigterwood, the midfielder/defender
spent several years at palace before moving to Sheffield United
after the side failed to win promotion in 2007. Fitz Hall also had
an impressive spell at Palace before moving to Wigan. Neil Warnock of course came across London from Palace to QPR as manager and has brought Keith Curle and Mick Jones with him as part of his coaching staff along with Carl Serrant who also worked at Palace. Warnock has made Palace players
Shaun Derry and Clint Hill his first signings of the summer and
they may not be the last of the Palace players to join QPR this
summer. Dougie Freedman began his career
at QPR. He was in the same youth team as Kevin Gallen and Danny
Dichio and with Les Ferdinand at the club at the time the club opted
to let him move to Barnet and he went on to have an excellent career
scoring plenty of goals for Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.
He was assistant manager to Paul Hart towards the end of last season
as they survived relegation.
When this web site first started the game against Crystal Palace turned out to be a huge one. First off we faced them away when Terry Venables was in charge of the Eagles. On loan Rob Steiner earned Rangers a point as we began to move clear of relegation worried. By the time we played them again relegation was bang on our minds. It was the last day of the season and we needed a win to stay in the division. It was a very tense atmosphere unlike anything I’ve ever seen at Loftus Road up until that point. Thankfully though Palace didn’t turn up and Rangers ran riot. Chris Kiwomya scored a hat trick and even Tony Scully, George Kulscar and Tim Breacker got on the score sheet in a brilliant 6-0 win as Rangers scored more goals in 90 minutes than they had in the previous eight games. After surviving Rangers had a better season the following year but struggled against our London Rivals. At Selhurst Park Rangers had Karl Ready and Danny Maddix sent off and were beaten 3-0, although the score line did slightly flatter the home side. The return game was played on my birthday and I travelled back to the game from Middlesbrough after visiting my girlfriend at University. It wasn’t worth the trip though as Clinton Morrison got the only goal and Rangers faint playoff hopes were ended. We were the first visitors to Selhurst for the 2000/01 season and after a draw in our first game against Birmingham hopes were high for this game. Mikkel Forssel gave the home side a first half lead but we fought back well after the break and Clarke Carlisle scored his first goal for QPR to earn us a point. By the time we met again we were in dire trouble at the bottom of the table where we would stay and eventually be relegated. Peter Crouch gave us an early lead against palace but we conceded just after half time and the draw was not really good enough as we sank further into relegation misery. In the 2005/06 season. Palace did the double over QPR. Live on Sky Rangers did their usual when on the tv and played like twats. Reich scored twice early on to put his side 2-0 up before Gareth Ainsworth scored his first of the season to give us hope. Rangers threw everything forward and young Shabazz Baidoo almost grabbed a second goal late on but Palace eventually caught us on the break and killed the game off. At Selhurst Park Palace again raced into a two goal lead with some woeful defending by Rangers. This was Gary Waddock's second game in charge and an experiment to try Matthew Rose in midfield was quickly changed and we looked brighter in the second half as Scott Donnelly created a goal for Furlong and despite several late chances we ended up unlucky to be on the losing side. In 2006/07 season we had mixed fortunes against Palace. At Loftus Road we thrashed them with the one of our best performances of the season. A cracker from Jimmy Smith drew us level int he first half before we fell behind just before half time. We fought back though and goals from Lomas, Gallen and a second from Smith helped us to a famous victory. Just a month later though we were brought back down to earth when Palace thrashed us 3-0 at Selhurst Park. In 2007/08 Palace again remained unbeaten
against us. We played themoff the park in November with Scott Sinclair
scoring and Rangers had several guilt edge chances to kill the game
off and win by a hatful. We didn't though and ended up comceding
late on to Clinton Morrison. That saw Palace turn things around and
by the time we played them again they were bang in form. We took
the lead through Damien Stewart but Palace hit back with Morrison
scoring again in a 2-1 win for Neil Warnocks side. The least said about the next seasons
meetings the better which ended in two dire 0-0 draws. Last season the game at Loftus Road
was rearranged after severe rainfall saw the match postponed. The
night off did QPR and Palace a favour as we recovered from poor
form to be on top of our games by the time we met in November. The
game was a close one with Akos Buzsaky giving QPR the lead from
the penalty spot but Palace drew level with a penalty of their own.
Rangers dominated the later stages with Julian Speroni producing
three world class saves to make sure the game ended a draw. The return game was a big one as Neil Warnock returned to Palace with QPR, both sides were in deep relegation trouble and Rangers looked like a side who would struggle to gain the six points needed to stay up. Rangers really turned it on that day
though with Buzsaky smashing in an early goal to settle the nerves
and in a match we dominated Kaspars Gorkss made sure of a first
win at Selhurst since 1989 with a second goal. Click on the match for a report of the game from this web site.
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