Eagle4Caley

I saw only the second half, but Arsenal were way to passive, did they spend most of the first half defending to? Only very late on did they take the game to PSG. Hard to say that PSG didn't deserve to win

I have to say I have to pinch myself sometimes....I have supported Palace since I was 14, I am now 67. I had pretty much given up on us winning anything except Play-off finals, I had seen Palace lose two FA Cup finals to Man United and a League Cup semi-final, plus two FA Cup semi-finals (I was at the last one we lost to Chelsea, their supporters weren't even that excited) The only thing we had won was something called the Zenith Data Systems cup, brought in when English clubs were banned from Europe. I was in Kuwait at the time! (After Gulf War 1) So winning the FA Cup last season was bloody fantastic...the BBC ended their coverage with a musical segment which bridged previous disappointments with the win, no Palace fan can watch it without blubbing. Being denied the Europa Cup through an issue we had little control over, was a punch to the gut, and we had our struggles over this season, but to win a European trophy is ...bloody fantastic I was involved in something non-football related last night, but got home to see the last five minutes and the celebrations (having sat on a train glued to the BBC website). It's been a great season for me as a Caley and Palace fan (even the Palace women got promoted) I can die content, but hopefully not yet, I have to tick off Greenock Morton away and Palace winning the Europa Cup (now we are rightfully there) first

Well it was too much for Patrick again, once they get over that crushing blow, they must surely be favourites to go up avoiding the play-offs (if they shrug off the play-off blues) Dunfermline and Raith Rovers in the play-off mix, with perhaps Ayr United? Inverness could do a Falkirk and go straight through, but is that asking too much? I would settle for a season on consolidation say 5th place with a play-off place a definite bonus

C'mon Alloa...I've been to Stenny and their ground is a bit of a sh#tehole [good team & manager this season, yes]...an entire central Scotland mini-break for me and the wife rests on Alloa's promotion!

I would like to see, what I call a 'purple card' system, introduced into the EPL. If during a corner kick or free kick, a player grapples/holds a another in the penalty box, the ref stops the kick and sends a player off the pitch (behind the goal line) until after the kick is taken. He keeps doing that every time it happens. The offending player has to wait 30sec after the restart of play. Someone 'purple carded' twice, gets a yellow card I suspect this might result in several players off the pitch in early season matches for some kicks.

I feel your pain Hammer, strangely at Palace v Everton on Saturday, VAR didn't intervene when an Everton player pushed Strand-Larsen off the ball in the penalty area with two hands without even trying to get the ball...Strand-Larsen was about to shoot. Not sure what the Ref was doing perhaps he was having a 'Scottish' moment, given what appears to be let go up here. But you can bet, if that had happened to a Arsenal, City or Liverpool player the ref's whistle would have gone straight to his mouth Going to be a tense couple of weeks for you now, but Spur's ability to shoot themselves in the foot may save West Ham

Looking at the results of play-offs this weekend, with Arbroath losing to Dunfermline and Airdrieonians losing to Alloa, Stenhousemuir seeing off QotS, means we have a line-up so far consisting of ICT Livingston Arbroath* Raith Rovers* Queens Park* Ayr United Greenock Morton* With one from either Alloa*/Stenhousemuir (Alloa for me please, but who do you guys think will come up?) Then it's a shoot out between Partick & Dunfermline for the right to face either St Mirren or Kilmarnock in the Play-off I think Dunfermline might see off Partick, whilst I reckon it's St Mirren rather than Kilmarnock* So then Dunfermline/St Mirren Final...who would win that?? (I have starred* teams I fancy watching away) I'm thinking the line-up for next season will be completed by Alloa, Partick & St Mirren. (be fun to see if I get any of those right!) ----- Meanwhile in League 1... I reckon Hamilton will stay up, so with Ross County and Airdrieonians down there with QotS and one from Stenhousemuir/Alloa, I think that is quite a competitive league for next season

Glad you had such a great trip Sandy...any suggestion that those staff at Inverness Airport were Ross County supporters by any chance??

I suspect I am writing this when a few of you are nursing alcohol induced sore heads! What an incredible season, and how fitting that the last match of the season, mirrored the season has a whole, what looked from afar via my phone was Caley in control, then towards the end a last minute (perhaps 20minutes) period of jeopardy and uncertainty. A goal back from Accies (do we need to try and secure Oli Shaw's services?) and the unbelievable drama of a late penalty kick to them, an equaliser for them would still have kept promotion in sight, but would have seen a last minute nerve-shredding panic ridden finale. But Munro saved it! So a wonderful end to the season albeit with some unfortunate joshing on the pitch between supporters A 5000 strong crowd, imagine if we get to see that a few more times next season, shows that actually Inverness's population can be mobilised (or bothered?) occasionally, although I suspect a fair few from farther away helped. Fitting that Billy McKay scored the winner, his aging legs have been well managed this year and he seems to have added quite a bit on the coaching side. A legend Fitting also that Danny Devine also scored, someone who nailed his colours to Caley's mast for this season early after last season finish no doubt helping to encourage others to stay or join the fight for this season. Not always appreciated, but a legend. And incredible that he and especially Remi Savage (with 52 appearances) featured in so many games. Quite incredible, given how little back up we had in the CB area, and how often in the past we have suffered long injury absences. Scott Kellacher has navigated a season where expectation was high, helping to assemble a decent team, managing the workload, those terrible 3G pitches, and different opposition styles. Mostly getting it right, making the right calls as the season came to it's epic end. Two years of a managing CV that is worthy validation and if the next season goes well must surely edge him towards 'legendary' status. Well done to Stenny for pushing us all the way, some achievement, I hope they do well in the play-offs Well done to all the young lads who have given so much, learnt so much, earned reputations, especially the boys on loan, In an ideal world Bavidge and Stewart would appear for us next season, we can only hope Aberdeen ignore a season and a half of stellar performances and decide that a Scottish Premiership campaign isn't for them. Regardless of that, in MacIntyre, MacLeod, McKinnon, Savage (if he stays) Allan, Longstaff, Munro, Alone, Zimba (19 goals) and Alonge, there is a decent base. For young Wotherspoon, probably asking too much. So an exciting season awaiting for 26/27, definitely a trip to Greenock Morton for me (overnighting in Dunoon!) and maybe Queens Park, in their actual ground not Ochilview! Possibly Dunfermline again, and a trip up to Inverness with the wife (who is complaining she is missing out) A wonderful season, it is life affirming supporting Caley and roaming Scotland! My day yesterday was spent watching Palace Women get promotion to the Super League. Can Palace men pull off European glory? Fingers crossed for another miracle ☺️ 😭

Yes...that was hell for me down in South London!

Okay, got back Sunday morning after an overnighter on a coach back, and left it to today to comment Overall an enjoyable trip, albeit the match was a bit of a damp squib, fortunately Billy got a terrific goal, which means things are much more in our hands, the simple equation is don't lose, and despite Hamilton being a bit of a bogey team and with something to play for, we have beat them twice this season and at the very least we should want to pay them back for relegating us. And we will be playing on a proper pitch! And I must say that Bayview pitch was absolutely terrible, a terrible bounce, the ball never held up on the glassy surface at all, maybe it was me, but the pitch looks less wide than Inverness'. The East Fife players were well marshalled and very busy, fair play to them, they often hunted our players down in pairs. We never had time on the ball, and could rarely get the ball under control. [I actually though Longstaff did the best in those close contact situations, but maybe I am in a minority]. People will of course say that this was the same for both teams [and we beat them earlier in the season], but I would argue if you play on that type of pitch regularly, you get to know how to play it. I understood why we were trying the long ball, to bypass a busy midfield, but we rarely got players close to Zimba who struggled a bit, but without close support this was likely to be the case as we needed to pick up the 2nd ball. I wasn't surprised that East Fife scored, they looked surer footed and the goal was a first touch hit. Would Billy and 'Wothers' fared better if on earlier? Who knows, they obviously had the guile, but also a tiring East Fife started to sit deeper which helped. Billy's goal was a great shot, and from distance [Probably the only way we were going to score on the day] I am not going to have a go at any player, because everyone of those have done a good job for us over the season. It didn't work on the day, but credit East Fife. As for team selections, does anyone know are best team, but also has the rotation helped minimise injuries this season? As for Saturday, I reckon Billy will have a say in the result.

A win is definitely as win! I thought Kelty might be hard to turn over, but we got over that hurdle, after the two good performances against Stenny and Peterhead, maybe nerves or lack of energy got the better of us...but Stenny failed at Cove, which I thought was possible. East Fife won't be walk-over but a week to rest/prepare and hopefully a desire not to take promotion to the last game should do the trick

So we shouldn't be complacent then, and hopefully we wont be 🤞

If you believe in Football Karma..and I do; Hamilton relegated us in 2024, so we should be going all out to exact revenge

Pretty good... at least two traps for Stenny; Cove away and Alloa at home. Either could end up as draws I feel Scott has tweaked our approach, we have a settled & solid defence, a preferred midfield [with good sub options] and a preferred attacked with plan B options. So not nails, but fingers crossed that when I am up for East Fife the 'finishing tape' will be in sight

The takeaway for me from this game and the Stenny game was a much more direct approach to attack which put the defences in both games under a lot of pressure, we were still patient, but launched forward better...we take this approach against Kelty and we should get a better result against them than the previous two games

That was lovely!

It was a hell of a game, and Caley (Kellacher) got the tactics right with less tippy tappy sideways stuff, given the surface and opposition We were great for 60mins. Bavidge outstanding, and excellent displays from everyone, except maybe Alonge was less effective than I have seen previously. Not playing Sole or Longstaff initially was probably the right thing to do. I did ponder the lack of substitutes as players tired, I guess Scott was wary of breaking up the formation, but felt Mackinnon, Longstaff and Brannan were possibilities That we were under pressure towards the end is no surprise, but the penalty decision was poor Overall, for me this was a 'not lose' game, with the win being a bonus, since we have that game in hand. It will of course be nip & tuck to the end. We have to win on Tuesday of course, but Kelty are also an obstacle.

I will 'stick' please Remember we were docked 5 points at the start of the season. Yes, one could argue that we have decent squad, and few injuries, but we have also played a lot of gams this season, and having watched many a successful promotion campaign at Palace, I know it's a grind, and many matches are 'won' but not 'enjoyed'. We have see many players be both superb and ***** in a passage of a game or two (can anyone say what our best team is for Plan A, and if we need a Plan B ?). And teams will set up to frustrate us. Fair play to Stenny, they have kept going, we need to keep going, we have scored more and conceded less. It is easy to back a manager when results are good, given where we are, surely we still back them For context... What if Arsenal don't win the title, given their abject failure in two cup exits??... (it's tough as a manager isn't it)

This is almost the reverse of last week, and with our matches with Cove having been very tight affairs, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise, although it is starting to settle down into a two horse race at the moment. I wonder if Stenny's side tends to pick itself, whilst we have more options to tinker with, which can cause confusion. But at some stage Stenny may run out of puff, probably just needs one or two games to go awry for them, in fact they are hardly blowing teams away (except for one result against East Fife). What we mustn't do is set ourselves up to think that getting 3points against Stenny decides our season, nor panic if they edge ahead in the table. I agree with someone's comment about Longstaff, he should be starting more often

Possible a crucial weekend of results, reclaiming daylight between us and Stenny, with a game in hand, and, as important, increasing our goal difference advantage over them (because you never know!)...Saturday 11th April has Championship decider/cliff-hanger written all over it Great anticipation by Billy for the first goal Not sure Munro had to rush out for their penalty (although from his view, he probably felt different and was only marginally too late) Great work for the 2nd goal all round including Alfie keeping up his record of scoring from less than 6 yards out (which I keep saying is an important skill) As for Alonge's goal, I have seen so many players fluff 'open goals', the fact that he didn't from his angle was super cool. _________ Meanwhile down South, Palace have stabilised their season and re-found their spirit and modus-operandi, whilst I attended my local National League side Sutton FC's game ....they were 4 Nil down and down to 10men by the 26th minute!...first time I have ever left a game at half-time!

The fact we are top of the table, clear by 10points [allowing for the deduction], with a vastly superior GD, and goals scored, shows our approach is working, and how efficient we are

That was a definite 'don't lose' match, with Stenny in good form, having beaten us twice already in the league. So coming back from an early goal and surviving a red card a definite plus , that's the two most recent games Stenny have failed to beat us in and sets us up for the final crucial away match with them. Will they run out of steam before then? five goals in 7 games is excellent from Bavidge and comes at a great time We have an interesting run in, …March 4 home games out of 5 then April 3 away games out of 4, helpful that this season our stadium has become a fortress, dropping just 7 points in the league and a league cup loss to St Johnson the only other damage

Does beating England make up for losing to the mighty Italy? Probably? Definitely? Not to fussed about the Rugby tbh 😉