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Memory Lane Memories and nostalgia about Crystal Palace F.C |
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#1
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Have we ever relied on one player more than we do Wilf right now?
OK, through stats about not winning games when Wilf doesn't play or just seeing with your own eyes, we rely on Wilf this season to a massive extent, that is obvious.
Question : has there ever been a time when we were as reliant on one player not being injured or always playing well? Peter Taylor must be close (which is why Southampton set out to crock him in the 76 semi final). Any others come to mind? |
#2
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AJ?
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#3
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AJ 2004/05 is probably one of the closest.
There once was a time when we were constantly praying for Kevin Mabbutt to recover from injury and “save” us.
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#4
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Before my time, but I would imagine Peter Simpson and Johnny Byrne would have been catalyst of the teams at the time.
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#5
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Great OP. In my time I can't remember our relying on an outfield player as much as Wilf. We probably depended on Jacko as much in those first few seasons in Division 1 but he was rarely injured for long so we didn't really know how bad we might have been without him.
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#6
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I never saw Peter Simpson but he was some goalscorer. Johnny Byrne was a wonderful player so composed and skilful. He laid on goals and scored many too, certainly the Wilf of his day in charasmatic terms.
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#7
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Er...bottom six and 4,500 crowds in Division 2 pre Ian Wright 1985. Then we signed him. Six years later a 3rd from top finish in Division 1/The Prem and a first FA Cup Final when it was really difficult to achieve Wembley.
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#8
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This. We'd have been in Div 3 if Mabbutt hadn't come back from injury towards the end of that season.
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#9
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John Stonewall Jackson. Kept us up for three seasons.
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#10
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Ian Wright was such a force of nature that even Arsenal became a bit reliant on him at one point. It must have been tempting to just kick the ball into space and let him do his thing.
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#11
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When I started going to Palace regularly, Peter Taylor was just outstanding for us on the wing, we also had Alan Whittle and for a little while Don Rogers playing in the same squad, but Taylor produced many great performances, which made his spell as manager so frustrating as he was the polar opposite in terms of entertainment as a player.
There is little doubt in my mind that Palace would have reached the FA Cup Final in 1976 if Southampton had not crocked him quite deliberately in the opening minutes of our Semi Final in 1976. Only a couple of months earlier he had helped to knock out Chelsea on the same Stamford Bridge with two of probably the most memorable Cup goals I have had the pleasure to watch Palace score. We were hardly a one man team, but under Big Mal we had a mixture of several players coming to the end of their careers like Rogers, Mulligan, Cooke, Tambling, McCormick etc and youngsters breaking through like Jim Cannon, Paul Hammond (very much reminds me of the Hennesey situation we have now, as older fans just could not really accept that he had been chosen over club legend John Jackson in goal), the Hinshelwood brothers, Martin and Paul and Dave Swindlehurst up front. In some ways, Taylor was the pivotal player in a turbulent time as Palace re-adjusted from slipping two Divisions from One to Three between 1973 and 1974, but we were firmly on course to come back again after he left for Spurs in 1976. I would love to have seen a Palace side with Sansom, Hilaire and Peter Taylor rampaging down the wings, it was sadly never to be, but I would definitely put Taylor forward as our key player under Big Mal, I would almost go as far to say that he was part of the template that Palace have come to be known as a cavaliering side that revolves around having skillful and exciting wingers.
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#12
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We relied a hell of a lot on Andy Johnson during our previous stint in the Premier League and the promotion season before it. He was never really injured for long spells in his time at Palace though.
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#13
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If AJ had got injured for say 3 months in the 04/05 season, we probably would have gone down on about 24 points.
Zaha is way better but we were probably slightly more reliant on AJ back then. With respect, it was effectively AJ up top with 10 hard working blokes behind him. Routledge was obviously talented too (and a bit of a prick), but that was it really. Saying that, how poor do we look without Zaha in the side? |
#14
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Quote:
True, Zaha is so important to the way we play. Where as with AJ it was more about his goals.
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#15
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Bright was also a key signing, along with GT and McGoldrick.
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#16
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We may have stayed up if Lombardo didn’t get injured as well. Although I can’t recall another collection of players that embodied the term ‘team’ less than that lot.
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#17
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I think it was Swansea home, around April 84, Cannon and Mabbutt 2-0 win, probably in front of about 6000, I think those 2 scored the previous home game too, big men for the occasion
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#18
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Tbf without Wright for most of the second half of the 89/90 season we still stayed up with relative ease.
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#19
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One man team and the greatest individual performances I have seen. No current England keeper is anywhere near his level.
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#20
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Yes I understand this but much of the Wright development was down to playing alongside Mark Bright and the 1990/91 team was full of many fantastic players from front to back
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