Eagle4Caley

You make some good points there AJ, especially about the ages of the new group, which is a positive point, although I had hoped Draper with be the experienced man that sticks everything together. However we have to move on; without the sugar daddy that Ross County appear to have (although they couldn't keep Boyce), we have to act like the club we are, a small team with a low fan base in a league than earns pennies not millions. At least we got a transfer fee for Draper, I don't know whether a combined fee and alleged saving in wages of £200K indicates that we are in a bad way debt-wise or just represents sensible business. The glory days of success cup final appearances and top six SPL finishes are for now gone, the team and the 'spirit' that gave us that virtually gone. Hopeful there is enough potential in the lads we have brought in to become something decent over time and bond together as a group. Importantly many are on contracts longer than one season, and probably one or two will give a transfer fee when they eventually move on.

Considering how hard goalscorers are to come by at any level I think we all rue the way Alex Fisher was treated, first by Foran, and then by our board in the aftermath of relegation, could have been the guy to build our attack on with Oakley and (perhaps) Bell offering something as well. I take heart from the reports about yesterdays game, especially with Vigurs and Calder getting good reviews, and Mulraney and Oakley getting mentions, we probably need a month to pull our sh#t properly together....and a couple of morale boasting wins

Arguably within a squad of 'so-so' players we have a few gems that could make all the difference if they turn up at the same time .... based only on reports that would be Seedorf, plus Vigurs and Mulraney (these two very much the enigmatic types) ... Draper could be the lynchpin to our game, whilst if Polworth were to rediscover his mojo he could be class in this division. The juries out on the four front players Baird (slightly better than Boden?), Zschusschen (the new Doumbuoya? who at least scored a few goals) Bell (who on the basis of one game seems to be raising hopes) and Oakley, who maybe has the best pedigree and the best reports. Hopefully one will kick on and if Tremarco returns fit and to form we have could have some threat. Could be very much a hit-and-miss season, that takes a while to get going.....I see the BBC predicts we will finish 3rd, and end up in the play-offs, we'd take that wouldn't we? (given the pedigree of Falkirk and the end of season from of St Mirren). They also predict Dundee Utd to go up automatically so today will be an interesting reveal of potential. Not sure we are up and running yet so a draw is the best I can see for today....lets hope I have lots of egg on face at 5pm

Great stuff, I have high hopes for Marley at Norwich

It has been good to see reinforcements coming in following a bit of a clear out, at least we have enough to put out a team! Of course it's hard to know if any of the new boys will do enough of a job for us, we retained few of those who joined last year, most not really a loss, except Fisher and Laing perhaps (and IMO Larnell Cole). I think still think we look a bit light upfront, although our best recent seasons have seen us rely on just a couple of players, hoping that injuries were rare. But looking at the midfield we look very short of ball winners, hopefully Draper stays, but if he is out of the equation for any reason then we look vulnerable...I just hope the next couple of signings address that area. That aside if the attacking midfielders (wingers) can deliver we could have a decent season....I'm certainly looking forward to it.

The playing strip looks the dogs b#llox! I want one of those shirts...be fun to wear it to Palace home games!

Currently got my eye on Livingston away in November and the home game (with the missus) against Falkirk in March

Has a decent enough record at this level...good to get one on board, I see the Courier is suggesting we are still looking to do something with Kevin McNaughton and Louis Laing

Was delighted to see Marley Watkins has signed for Norwich City on a three year deal and joins the club officially on the 1st July. He was clearly a decent prospect when he was with us, and after Billy McKay was sold took over the mantle of being the primary attacking threat culminating in his excellent performance at the Scottish Cup final. Norwich is quite a step up although he was in the same league last year with Barnsley, but Norwich the sort of club for whom promotion to the EPL is always a distinct possibilty

Sadly not the first ex-player turned manager whose move has not worked out well (Palace's recent history is littered with such cases), I think many of us were concerned about his appointment, not least because he had no experience at all, and the club is quite light on resources and backup. But either the club or the man, or both have bitten the bullet, which I think gives us a better chance of a good go at getting out of the Championship. I'd like to think the board has an idea of who it wants as manager, and that we make a good fist of retaining key players for next season

I wonder if the board have decided they can't afford to fund a Premiership side and have decided to bubble along the bottom of the Championship for a couple of years to pay off debts....not sure if that's a model that really works, and given the outlay we have on transfers and wages as it is, I wonder what funding a Championship side looks like! What are the likely differences in attendances going to be, sure Celtic and Ranger draw a decent crowd, but even the Ross County matches saw attendances dropping off

It was a fabulous day, I felt privileged to be there, and the look of bemusement on my North London office colleagues faces on the monday following when I bought in the celebratory doughnuts was just great! Equally as good was the epic semi final win against Celtic which I managed to get to after an overnight Megabus trip up to Glasgow having watched Palace at home the previous day...can't remember the name of the pub I drank in near the ground before and after the match but that was special. Sadly my other team couldn't quite replicate the achievement the following year at Wembley which made the SC win even more special

Relegation...it happens, but we won the Scottish Cup under his watch, that doesn't happen often, I've watched Palace for 44years and never seen them win a proper cup (and may never see that), but I have seen them go into administration 3 times. ICT also got their highest placed league finish, into Europe and also a league cup final...not bad for a small club that's not been around for long. I'm sure he's sad to go with the club being relegated, but he can be proud of the record of the club under his stewardship

That strikes me as a quite a lightweight midfield, and I suspect Doran will be a perennial 'sicknote', as for that front line...meh If we have any decent youngsters next year is the time to get them into the team..but we do need a strong core, if we get that right, we stand a chance

It's bad enough going down, but to have your manager issue probably the worst of a series of post match interviews doesn't give one much optimism for the following season. I can't decide whether winning 3 out of the last 4 games when we had won only 4 of the previous 34 is any cause for optimism either, given that it probably confirms that RF had no real idea of his best team. It's either supreme belief or extreme delusion that he thinks 10 out of the starting 11 will be with us next season. Obviously the question of the moment is who are the mysterious 'three bad apples that have to be got rid of'? If it is not the starting 11 (unless he is including Tansey as one) then it's difficult to see who it is of any note....Meekings, Boden, OFW, Cole, King, McNaughton, Mulraney, Doran, Tremarco (!!!) see how damaging the speculation could be, although it'll probably come out if there is any truth in it. I suspect the reason RF wants a smaller squad, is that he found the man management side of things difficult, and a smaller squad is less disgruntled players to cope with. The annoying thing is that a starting eleven, that included the likes of Esson, Raven, Laing, Brad McKay, Warren (prob still good enough in the Championship) Draper Polworth Vigurs (again prob still good enough for the Championship) Mulraney, Billy McKay and Fisher, would do pretty well next season under the right guidance (I'm assuming Meekings and Tremarco are out of contract and likely to go)...in that line up I'd also include Larnell Cole, I might be in a minority but there's definitely a player there. However is RF the manager to deliver those players to the starting line up and to drill them into a cohesive and consistently firing unit?

Come on you Caley!

The Championship could be a really competitive one next season.... I have become unreasonably excited about the prospect of getting up to one or two from Falkirk (if they don't get promo), Dunfermline, St Mirren or Livingston (all grounds within reasonable distance of Glasgow/Edinburgh airports)..with either wife or daughter. I've just discovered that Livingston, who have quite a decent ground, are managed by David Hopkin who I saw score the winning goal for Crystal Palace in the 1997 English Div Play-off final at Wembley

On Holiday at the moment and didn't see the game... scoreline was an absolute shocker. That win against the Rangers seems such a long time ago! As I said last season when Yogi was moaning about transfer budgets and fans were moaning about 'tiki taka' possession football and looking for him to go over the David Raven non-contract, that we might rue his departure. To be fair to the board they are pretty much running the club on a shoestring....that 3rd place and Cup win was definitely punching well above our weight. I think they probably engineered Hughes out of the club as they couldn't afford his ambition. There's not a shadow of a doubt we're down and I'm sorry to say that RF has made quite a mess of things (was there much doubt about that in reality?). We won't return with him at the helm. Next season Falkirk, St Mirren, Dundee United and Livingston will contest the Championship and unless we sort the management out we will be contesting the bottom places. That said I have highlighted several away grounds that I hope to get to!

Let's face it, to stay up we probably need to win a minimum of 3 games out of the last 5 (including the game against Dundee) when we've only won 4 all season, and hope Dundee claim no than three points...then we would have to win the play-off. However does RF know what is the best team to achieve this? From the BBC report it sounds like we were definitely in the game, but we can't seem to stop the goals going in.

Well.... having watched the highlights on the BBC website, we seemed to play OK for most of the match, in that most of the highlights were in our favour! Cole seemed to be having a decent game, and should have had a free kick, when he was sent off..obviously it looks like he completely lost his head, but I still think he should be playing after his suspension. The first St Johnstone goal was a classic case of a goalie pushing the ball away, only to send it to an away player. Their penalty was part muck up by two of our players, and rather soft (let's put it this way Wilfred Zaha at Palace never wins a penalty with that sort of challenge against him). Nothing going for us at the moment.

It's amazing how we looked like a decent team when we beat Ranger's, but we haven't got anywhere near the formation or results since then! I'm hearing Warren was sent off after the match for something he said in the tunnel, that may be a blessing in disguise as McCart, Laing and McNaughton should probably be contesting the two CB places (although I see McNaughton went off with an hour to go...was he injured? I'm assuming Mulraney is not fully fit, as he didn't get on the pitch today, meanwhile Boden, who for a long time looked like 'persona non grata' did! I appreciate John Hughes rather flounced off in a huff at the end of last season, but it's hard to be convinced that the board has played a good hand over the past year. I was rather hoping we might stay up via the play-offs, but I now I'm looking at possible away trips in the championship for next year!

Didn't look to bad a game from the highlights...OFW pulled of some decent saves. Are we playing 5 at the back? Strange...we've lost fewer games out of the last 10, than the four teams above us, is that good defending or poor defending (i.e. maybe we should have won a couple more) bit of a bummer that St Johnstone managed to get two of their own players sent off without anyone else's help to gift the Accies the points

Have to say I rather enjoyed that!

Couldn't put it better....GT has been a good player for us (one of our better?) across the seasons he's been with us, think we will miss him next season, hope he fares better at Aberdeen than Miles Storey (but obviously hope he's rubbish when he plays against us)

I'll be interested to see the highlights, as I was intrigued in the starting line up, providing two up front and using the full backs as wing backs? Hard to decide if a draw is a good point, certaintly a loss could have been terminal, and depending which posters are closer in their interpretation we were either a) largely comfortable against County or b) missed a great opportunity against an out of form team with tactics/formation that couldn't win us the game. The outcome at least sees as off the bottom and closer to 10th place due to other results. I'm a bit disappointed that the line up we had against Rangers hasn't been repeatable, Mulraney is a big loss at the moment and I hope he comes back soon, and i think Cole is a decent player who needs to play more. I'd prefer us to play 4 at the back, so I'd be interested on other view as to which out of Warren/McCart/Laing (and Mckay) should play as the two CB's. It looks like Vigurs has picked up and injury now so a midfield four seems to pick itself ...Cole/Tansey/Draper/Polworth, until Mulraney is fit. Anyway I'm increasingly beginning to believe we are going to be in a end of season play-off...anyone for a repeat clash against Falkirk!