Behind enemy lines

Games against your local rivals can make or break a season, as Crystal Palace are hopefully finding out

Posted in conjunction with Football Fans Today

 

http://footballfanstoday.co.uk/category/2-championship/crystal-palace/

 

There is something that tastes far sweeter about a derby victory than just a normal, run of the mill three points, although as I type that, I’m struggling to think of a time as a Palace fan when maximum points in the bag is not a cause for some celebratory fist bumps. A win’s a win as they say but emerging victorious against the local rivals is hugely satisfying, indeed judging whether you’ve had a good or a bad season in the minds of fans can often be decided on just that factor alone. The 1-0 win at Charlton two weeks ago mattered.

 

It must have been with those thoughts firmly in their minds that going into last weekend’s clash with Cardiff the Palace players believed they would be able to deal with whatever the world threw at them. In that case it was coming back from 2-0 down against one of the strongest sides in the division. There’s no denying that emerging from the bandit country of Greenwich with all the spoils helped to forge the spirit shown against the men from South Wales.

 

The nature of the rivalry between Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic has been the source of debate amongst Eagles fans. For some excellent background reading on the issue check out this piece by Michael Brockman for the always informative Five Year Plan Website http://www.fiveyearplanfanzine.co.uk/Guest-Blog-Content/stop-wasting-your-time-charlton-fans-we-dont-hate-you.html. But while I would agree to a certain extent that the level of animosity that Palace have for Charlton is nowhere near that which is reserved for Brighton or Millwall, or indeed that Charlton have for Palace I think most found the Friday night match highly enjoyable for a whole host of reasons.

 

For while fans like Michael in his article profess not to ‘hate’ the men from the Valley (and indeed, nor do I) a fairly bitter rivalry has grown up, from the days in the late 80’s when the two clubs shared a ground. The fact it was Charlton sharing Palace’s ground which perhaps helps to explain why the level of vitriol is higher on that side but it also comes down to the 2-2 draw between the two clubs that relegated the Eagles from the top flight in 2005, a position they have been unable to reach since.

 

Looking back on that day Charlton fans revelled in the sunshine, absolutely ecstatic at the fact they had ‘sent the Palace down’ and the amount of sheer ecstasy in their celebration was a cause of tensions starting to mount. I think as a fan, the reason that relegation hurt so bad, was to me, less that it had been inflicted by men from down the road but more that had survival been achieved at that particular time with that particular squad that people saw the opportunity for a brighter future.

 

Perhaps that might to start to explain why some Palace fans began to look at Charlton as a team they desperately wanted to get one over on. There was a measure of revenge in the 1-0 win (an all too rare win against them) in the season that sent the Addicks to plumb the depths of League One, but when people remembered back they recalled that they were the team that killed the unlikely Premier League dream and they were the ones that started a downward trend when staying up could have meant a much brighter future.

 

That’s all purely speculation and guesswork, however the facts were that fans from SE25’s frustration has probably built up over the fact that on almost every occasion since the turn of the century, Charlton have come out on top. Maybe we didn’t hate them, we hated playing them.

 

In the game itself, luck was ridden. Thankfully the ghost of Ian Wright did not come back to haunt the club when his son Bradley was wrongly adjudged as being in an offside position when he put the ball in the back of the net in the first half. South African international midfielder Kagisho Dikgacoi had spent the previous week in sunny Brazil, playing against the next World Cup hosts and it was a volley of sheer class, straight out of the Samba stars playbook which led to the Eagles conquering enemy territory.

 

The positive final score was as a result of the continuing desire by Dougie Freedman to inspire the players he has around him by easing off the hand break and putting the belief in the squad that they can go out there to win games; they don’t to have to sit back being reactive they can thrive being proactive. The first win of the season against Sheffield Wednesday was vitally important but the 1-0 victory at The Valley, going behind enemy lines and emerging unscathed is what has helped the players to believe that they can come from two goals down. A game against your local rivals can break your season but as is hopefully the case for Crystal Palace it can also make it. Bring on Millwall and Brighton then...