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A few bits of admin as I emerge from my slumber.
I don't recall Andy Gray playing up front in his England game, my recollection is that Taylor went for a defensive 4-5-1 formation with Gray and Thomas playing alongside their old mate Dennis Wise in what could only be described as a combative midfield. Gary Lineker must have been yearning for the days of Gazza, Waddle and Beardsley. Worth noting after the Liverpool game that if we won our game in hand we'd be up to fourth in the table and only three points behind the eventual champions Leeds. As I noted at the start of this thread the first third of this season was very solid for us points-wise despite the turmoil around the club, and even if the football itself was not pretty at times. The Steve Harrison appointment gave more ammo to those who accused Palace of being a dirty long-ball side given his previous close association with Graham Taylor, whose Watford side were, along with Wimbledon, viewed as the leading exponents of the long-ball genre of football. A backdated catch-up on new entrants into the top ten over the previous few weeks for those who care (just me and Grim Reaper I think). I will try to keep this updated weekly again from now on: Week ending 19 October 1991 World In Union by Kiri Te Kanawa - The official song of the 1991 rugby world cup which as others have noted was being held in the UK through the autumn. I actively disliked rugby then and now - not a spectator sport in my book - so I ignored it. Get Ready For This by 2 Unlimited - I suppose technically this was a dance track but very much of the watered down variety, definitely not one for the purists. Annoyingly catchy and was used by the BBC for a long time as their background music on Grandstand when Steve Rider ran down the menu of the afternoon's action at the start of the show. It got to number two. Week ending 26 October 1991 Dizzy by Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff - a number one smash and the eighth biggest selling single of the year, in reality though a pointless cover other than to propel Reeves' singing offshoot further into the public consciousness. It had an air of smugness about it, like most of the Wonder Stuff's output. Didn't like it. Change by Lisa Stansfield - Lisa had taken quite a long break after her 'been around the world and I-I-I' megahit, if the rumours are true due in part to a monstrous cocaine habit. This might have been her comeback single? I vaguely remember it, a pretty bland slice of Brit-soul which only crept to number 10. Week ending 2 November 1991 The Fly by U2 - This got all the way to the top, their lead single from the Achtung Baby album which was very heavily marketed on TV and radio. The album consolidated their place as a stadium rock money machine following the breakthrough made with The Joshua Tree. I don't like U2 (who does?) but I didn't actually mind this song too much. With hindsight it sounds a bit like something Blur might have done in the late 90s, quite a nice scuzzy sound and good contrast between verse and chorus. No Son Of Mine by Genesis - even the great British public were starting to get fed up with Phil Collins by now and he would seal his reputational fate in the eyes of many a few months later by declaring that he would leave the country if Labour won the 1992 general election. The song is poor, peaking at number six which wasn't too bad but the accompanying album didn't hit the sales heights of Invisible Touch in the late 80s. Go by Moby - built on the Twin Peaks theme, this was his first hit I believe and a couple of years later his output was being used by advertising agencies the world over to flog cars, fridges and whatnot. Of course Moby now lives under the shadow of sexual abuse allegations. We should not forget that at the height of his fame he used to boast about playing a game he called 'celebrity knob touch' which involved mingling with fellow celebrity guests at parties and functions and seeing how many you could surreptitiously touch with the tip of your penis (poking from inside your trousers I hasten to add). So not really a surprise in hindsight that his behaviour caught up with him. |
I got that England team wrong by the way, no Wise, but it was Lineker as the only out and out striker. I assume David Platt would have been playing in behind him. Sinton and Rocastle the wide men.
Amazingly Gary Mabbutt played centre half that day alongside Des Walker. I would have thought his England career (such as it was - he only won 16 caps) was long over by then but it seems Taylor recalled him after four years in the international wilderness for his final three caps. |
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Passionately hated him back then and had done for years (can't remember why but I know him scoring the own goal winner for Coventry in the 1987 Cup Final was up there for with any Palace goal of that time!) But for the deflection off that Spurs twonk for Poland's goal, Gray would probably not have been quite so lambasted as 0-0 at half time would have been a far different story than 0-1. One More Point Issue 1 uncovered the 'conspiracy to relegate Palace' and Mabbutt (along with George Graham) was found guilty. (It was something of a spoof article, but it was weird how there was a story you could cobble together with all the shit that was going between 1991-93.) |
New entries into the top ten for week ending 9 November 1991:
If You Were With Me Now by Kylie Minogue and Keith Washington - Sorry but I have drawn a complete blank on this one, I can't even remember who the hell Keith Washington was. So no further comments your honour. Rhythm Is A Mystery by K-Klass - Ah yes, a classic of the DIY dance genre which was flooding the charts at the time, complete with the requisite pounding house piano riff. If I remember rightly they did a delightfully cheapo video to accompany the track. Is There Anybody Out There? by Bassheads - Another dance track but this one had a marginally darker / heavier sound. You are highly unlikely to hear it played on any radio station these days, very much of its time. |
According to Wiki, Keith Washington is an American RnB singer- no other UK hits
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As for K Klass, that's one of the few songs I owned on cassette single. Quality tune. Still have that banging out on Alexa once or twice a month. :p |
An interesting month news-wise. Terry Waite is freed, Robert Maxwell is found dead off the coast of Tenerife and Freddie Mercury died.
In these pre internet days, the rumours about Freddie’s demise were still rife leading up to the announcement of his illness, as it was clear from the lyrics of his songs and his demeanour in Queen’s later videos that something was very wrong. |
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Still only three points off top if we win our game in hand...but I think this was the point at which the wheels well and truly blew off and the barren run commenced. Looking at that table you can see the reason why...we have scored plenty but with a goal difference of zero we have conceded more than anyone outside the bottom six (and even two of those sides had a better goals against record than us). So our normally pretty reliable defence had started to malfunction and if the goals started to dry up we were in trouble.
There was only one new entrant into the top ten for week ending 16 November but it was a notable one. It's Grim Up North by The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - AKA the KLF, having enjoyed a trio of massive hits with their patented 'stadium house' sound they were starting to generate an air of invincibility. They released this single under their alternative name, rightly so as it was definitely more niche with an industrial sound eventually giving way to the strains of Jerusalem. The lyrics comprised a simple list of northern towns and cities, I always loved the way that 'Hebdon...Bridge' was delivered as though it was two separate places. Fun fact: The KLF were the world's biggest selling singles act of 1991. Not bad for an outfit which I always viewed as the dance version of Carter USM (which I absolutely mean as a compliment). |
Crazy really. I’ve always slagged 91-92 off and had completely forgotten that 15 games in we were still doing so well especially taking into account injuries and Wrighty leaving. For me, the season had sort of faded over the years into these parts: 1) ok start 2) racism incident 3) Wrighty leaving 4) Liverpool away 5) Gabbiadini not working out 6) Coleman playing up front for what seemed like forever as I poked pins into my eyeballs.
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I was only 11 at the time but the memory I have is him missing a weak penalty at home to Coventry and being subbed off soon after. Was he then sent on loan to Spurs pretty sharpish? Was he unhappy that his mate Wright had left? Was it down to the disaster of a 45 minutes for England? Looking back its hard to understand how it literally fell apart at this stage considering we were in 6th place albeit in a false position by all accounts. |
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Andy joined Spurs midway through the 91/92 season, a few weeks after Christmas. He played 14 league games for them that season, scoring once.
I'd imagine from his perspective it was his last chance to join a genuinely 'big club' and maximise his career, both in terms of earnings and competing for honours. He turned 28 in February 1992. Spurs had won the FA Cup the previous season and were part of what was seen at the time as the established 'big five' elite, even though they hadn't won the league for 30 years (now 60 years and counting). It was sad the way things ended for him with us but he remains one of my all time favourite players. It has been good to see him re-engage with the club and us fans on social media in recent years. This is a player from South London who started out with us as a boy, present in the dressing room on that famous night in May 1979 against Burnley. |
One of my favourite ever players, too. We'd have got promoted a year earlier if he hadn't left first time (Pennyfather was such a downgrade) and I really wasn't sure how his return would go down in 1989, but he was such a key part of our greatest ever team.
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I suppos we should avoid the temptation to be overly melodramatic considering we finished 10th. I would bite your hand off for that this season.
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