Eagle4Caley

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!

Arguably a very good point against both our bogey team and the SPL other form team. I quite like the fact that RF started with two guys up front, although it's a shame Mulraney is missing

Realised the road that runs from the Stadium past the Harbour is not called Harbour Road, but Stadium Road/Longman Drive etc etc!

Well despite the result, I enjoyed my trip up.....It was a game of two halves really, in the first half we had a plan to contain Celtic, and did pretty well for 43 mins, yes they go forward a lot, and got a lot of balls into the box which we kept out one way or other, I thought we were well organised, and OFW only had a couple of tough shots to save. We obviously didn't offer too much going forward, which was to be expected, although we got into promising situations on a number of occasions, only to let ourselves down with poor or misplaced passes or poor ball control. But we were heading to half-time at nil-nil and I was thinking it could be one of those games when we nick a point (or more)....and then Sinclair scored, it was a good goal fair and square. Unfortunately I was still sipping my half time Bovril downstairs, when the game started and I heard the Celtic fans cheer. I had the benefit of a TV replay to see that the ball bobbled before OFW kicked it, it looked awful, but he was rather unlucky....it killed the game for us though. With just one player up front it was going to be a hell of a struggle, it needed a big guy like Ofere to be a nuisance up front to help Mckay out. I felt for OFW again with their 3rd goal, as I think he had no option but to cover a crossed free kick, things pretty much petered out after that, Polworth had a great strike, and then they got the fourth goal....I was kind of thankful we kept it at only 4 against! Considering we were getting a bit of a drubbing, I thought Laing did pretty well, and Cole worked hard. We did miss Mulraney, as I felt King didn't seem to be able to trouble their defence. I thought RF was a bit harsh on the players, I don't think there was much shame in losing to what are clearly the best side in the SPL by a country mile, if the players can get back to the level of game they played against Rangers we should be OK, although it will be a close run thing, I had plenty of sunny spells whilst up to get my usual number of iconic photo's of the town, but I must say it was fecking cold on my walk back along the Harvour Road after the match!

I'm not a big fan of the guy who wins the penalty taking it....unless he is the designated guy. BK has missed a few in the past, I wonder if Draper was the DP at tyhe start of the match. Vigurs lost out on the ploy of sending the goalie the wrong way. Whilst perhaps not as good a game for Cole as the one aginst Hearts, he was still mentioned by the commentators last night for having a positive contribution, particularly after Mulraney went off. He has pretty good close ball control and composure, and was a good outlet. I thought he did help out the defence sufficiently. I'm not having a pop at you, but some supporters are only satisfied if a player rounds around frantically for 90mins putting in block-buster tackles all night long.

Just loved this.... a great game to watch on TV Thought Mulraney was excellent, as was Draper, Cole kicked on in the 2nd half after Jake went off, Raven did a good job covering for Tremarco as did Brad Mckay taking the right berth, in fact the Rangers penalty aside, I thought defensively we were pretty good after we got past the first 10minutes of the game, although OFW did have a few good saves to make. Polworth also maintaining the imnprovement in his form. What a goal from Tansey, and great 2nd effort well saved by the Rangers keeper. As for King Billy, worked hard all game, gets a penalty and scores a superb winner (the wife told me off for making so much noise!) I was excited about coming up for the Celtic match, before tonight.... now I can barely contain myself

Enjoyed watching the extended highlights on Alba this morning, my impressions were; Overall a pretty tidy performance from us, Hearts had more attempts at goal than us but many were fairly tame efforts from distance that didn't trouble OFW, who looked secure and dealt with the penalty well Laing looks a decent signing for us, and McCart did pretty well...they both give Brad Mckay and Warren some competition, hard to gauge from just one viewing but Laing should probably start? Billy Mckay gives us a much better outlet and threat compared to the recently departed Doumbuoya (despite that latters tally of goals)...I thought Anier did OK when he came on, quite mobile, don't see too many goals in him though and between him Fisher and Boden probably not much to chose from We were pretty solid in midfield, Polworth not quite the bright spark he was last season, but getting there, I like Mulraney, and Doran looks fit and strong, we do have some useful wing options, but someone needs to really claim the spot. Lastly, I really like the look of Larnell Cole, and if it's possible we should try and secure him for next season, as I thing he will really start to thrive with regular games....theres a bit of Ryan Christie about him.

We're due a win...I'm sensing a draw on Friday then al three points against you know who and I'm up for that one

Mulraney looked especially dangerous, although Celtic were having a cup of tea mentally by the time he came on, I thought Cole looked OK as well, both Billy's rather ineffectually, which was at least better than Anier (Oh how we needed Ofere!). Given that we have lost 5-0, 6-0 and 5-0 under JH at Celtic Park, in the previous two seasons, the result was about par for the course

Coming back from 0-2 down to get a draw was the one bright spot to a horrible football weekend for me with my other side self detonating 0-4 to Sunderland (actually it was the fans who self combusted) ...amazing how Palace can spend £90m in transfers in one season and still look *****! When was the last time ICT paid a transfer fee? Chuffed to see Mckay back with us and back on the scoresheet (less so the missed penalty). I am still trying to get over the shock of Doumbuoya leaving though! We seem to have enhanced (or is that enlarged) our striking options, although neither King or Mulraney seem to have clinched the wingers spot for themselves. Defensively aside from Tremarco we seem to have an issue with every other position (including the goalkeeper) which is a worry. Likewise in midfield does Richie know what his best selection is? It seems an improved performance from Tansey yesterday? (post transfer window). Draper seems to be a shoe-in, so should we be playing 4-4-2 with one winger leaving the last midfield berth between Cole, Polworth or Vigurs? Anyway counting down the days to my midweek trip up for the Celtic game..have a strange feeling we are going to get something from this game, although not sure how the Cup game against them shapes things, I'm guessing we'll lose taht one, but we need to leave a few 'marks' on them to make both sides realise the league result is no foregone concludion!