Match Review: Crystal Palace 1-2 Brighton
Crisis, what crisis? It’s amazing what a victory over your arch rivals can do for confidence and outlook and Brighton’s 2-1 success away at Crystal Palace feels like the turning point in a season that was threatening to go off the rails slightly.
It was victory over Palace that ironically started the slump. When the Albion won 3-1 at the Amex despite playing for over an hour with 10 men, the result moved Chris Hughton’s side nine points ahead of the Eagles and 12 clear of the relegation zone. We were talking about breaking into the top 10 back on that heady December evening.
Turned out that was all a bit of a pipe dream. Whether the players became overconfident or rested on their laurels after vanquishing that lot from up the A23, the Albion won just two league games in the following three months leading up to the visit to Selhurst Park. Palace in contrast seemed to get the kick up the arse they needed following that defeat in Sussex, winning six of their subsequent 14 Premier League fixtures and overtaking us in the table.
The omens weren’t great coming into Saturday then. Roy Hodgson’s side had the better form and were higher in the league. Oh yeah, and Brighton hadn’t won in Croydon for 14 years and hadn’t completed a league double over Palace for three-and-a-half decades.
Our trip to Selhurst didn’t exactly inspire confidence either. Firstly, there was a huge puddle of sick in the middle of the stairs at Norwood Junction Station which people were walking through with blissful unawareness, the result of an impressive performance from whoever managed to put away enough Stella to produce that before midday.
Then, we spotted Michel Kuipers heading towards the ground. Last time he’d been at Selhurst, we’d lost 5-0. As far as lucky charms go, stepping in a pool of vomit and seeing a goalkeeper who shipped five goals in one of the most diabolical afternoons we’ve had as Albion supporters this century wasn’t exactly a great start.
Worse was to come with the news that Florin Andone, the Albion’s outstanding match winner in his 30 minutes on the pitch last time out against Huddersfield Town, had pulled up injured in the warm up. As far as replacements go, Glenn Murray isn’t a bad one to have and he’d prove his worth with only his fourth touch of the game but even so, losing Andone before the match had even kicked off was a bit of blow.
We should’ve lost Anthony Knockaert after 28 seconds as well for a terrible lunge on Luka Milivojevic which he somehow got away with only a booking for. Knockaert plays with his heart on his sleeve and that is one of his biggest assets, but this was stupid in the extreme. You could just imagine Chris Hughton’s pre-game team talk at 12.29: “Right guys, nothing stupid out there, keep your cool, we don’t want any silly bookings or red cards like Shane’s at the Amex.” Followed two minutes later by a “For **** sake Anthony”, as the Little French Magician went clattering in, studs up on the Palace captain.
All would be forgiven 73 minutes later when Knockaert scored the winner with what will surely be voted as the Albion’s goal of the season, but at the time his needless yellow looked a real problem given that he would now be struggling to put a tackle in against Wilfried Zaha. That problem was exacerbated when Martin Montoya also went into Craig Pawson’s book midway through the first half, meaning that Zaha now had free reign to run at two players who were already on yellow cards.
But Palace’s golden boy couldn’t take advantage. The closest he came to having any sort of impact on the game was when he cut inside in the first half and hit a shot which caused more panic in the executive boxes high above the Whitehorse Lane Stand than it did Maty Ryan’s goal. By the end, Zaha was cutting an increasingly frustrated figure, much to the travelling supports delight. He’s gonna cry in a minute…
Zaha may be the apple of Palace fan’s eyes, but they also rate centre back James Tomkins highly. You may remember this is a bloke who, according to our friends in red and blue, should be ahead of Lewis Dunk in the pecking order for the England squad. That made the fact that it was his error that gifted the Albion the lead all the more pleasing, especially on a day when Dunk delivered a captains performance in front of a set of supporters who hate him with a passion.
Quite what Tomkins was doing when Dunk smashed the ball 70 yards down the pitch with the assistance of a ridiculously strong wind, goodness knows. To say it was Sunday League defending does a disservice to all those blokes who turn up at Waterhall every weekend nursing hangovers. Essentially, what happened is that Tomkins ducked his head as if he were finishing a 100m race but only succeeded in completely missing the ball, allowing Murray a free run at Vicente Guaita in the Palace goal.
What happened next seemed to take place almost in slow motion. From the moment the ball left Murray’s right foot via the sweetest of volleys, time appeared to stop. The whole ground seemed to go silent as we all waited to see where it would end up….and then the net bulged and it was absolute bedlam in the away end. Murray of course didn’t celebrate which made the fact that Knockaert, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Davy Propper, Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk all went mad attempting to bundle him in front of the Holmesdale End even better.
Palace had plenty of possession after Murray’s opener but bar Ryan clawing a corner away, they did very little with it for the remainder of the first half. The start of the second half was a different story though and within five minutes, the Eagles were level from the penalty spot. Andros Townsend went down easily under a challenge from Davy Propper but without any blue and white tinted spectacles on, it probably was a foul and Milivojevic made no mistake in sending Ryan the wrong way.
Memories of that second half horror show when the Albion conceded four times to lose 4-2 away at Fulham back in January suddenly came flooding back and there were a couple of moments of questionable defending, but the Albion by and large managed to see their way through the next 10 minutes to the hour mark before coming into the game a little more.
The deciding goal arrived with 15 minutes left to play and there aren’t really words to describe how good it was. Dale Stephens started it, playing a superb 40 yard diagonal pass to Knockaert out on the right which should go some of the way to shutting down the ridiculous theory of Stephens not being able to play a forward pass.
If that ball was good then what came next was even better. Knockaert brought it down first time, cut inside and then bent an exquisite 25 yarder into the very top corner of Guaita’s goal. It’s the sort of shot that makes you wish goals still had stanchions so that it could clang into that little triangular piece of metal which held the net up.
It was perfect, it was brilliant and it sent the away end crazy. After never really setting the Premier League alight in the Albion’s 18 months as a top flight club so far, this was a reminder to everyone of the quality that Knockaert possesses. A goal worthy of winning any game, let alone a derby.
That strike should have led to a nervy last 15, but it says much for Palace’s bluntness that you never really felt they would equalise. Their players were flat and the “famous Selhurst atmosphere” non existent, save for the monotonous sound of a drum being banged over and over again by some Dortmund-wannabes. It was all a far cry from the last Albion victory at Palace in 2005 when we really were hanging on and the Holmesdale End were roaring on their team rather than being dictated to by a load of freaks dressed in black.
The lack of atmosphere from the home sections was in stark contrast to the roar that greeted the final whistle in the Arthur Wait Stand. “Ole, ole, ole, six points, six points” rang out in honour of a first double since the 1983-84 season. Yves Bissouma danced, Duffy looked like a man possessed and Knockaert led some strange Icelandic clap thing which hopefully we’ll never have to see again.
Kuipers had a smile on his face at the end and we’d have happily walked through another six piles of sick on the way back to Norwood Junction. The crisis appears to be over and two more wins should secure a third season of Premier League football in 2019-20 – not to mention the small matter of an FA Cup Quarter Final to come next week.
Of course, those of us of a certain disposition will be fully expecting the Albion to beat Millwall, draw Palace and then lose to them in the semi finals at Wembley. That would be what we call “typical Brighton” but right now, who cares?
Brighton rule the roost. Know your place, Palace.
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