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I feel ashamed that I didn't also hold this grudge in all honesty |
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I’m ashamed to say I have no recollection of this game at all. I know I was there as I never missed a home game for 10 years up to that point.
What I do clearly recall were the Vinny Jones comments prior to the game. As it turned out he was sold to Chelsea just before this match. But his comment calling us ‘horrible so and so’s that stamp on people’, was another weapon to be used against us by those who felt we needed bringing down a step or two. It was drip, drip, drip from the FA Cup Final replay onwards really. Denis Law’s disgraceful co commentary, backed up by Ian Green…the bloodied battles with Everton…it was all beginning to feel like a vendetta from the media and in hindsight, was building to a crescendo, coming to a head with the racism storm. |
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I'm not saying the magazine was biased against Palace (quote the opposite in fact, I think half the staff were Palace fans including the editor) and I also know it was a feature that ran for at least a few weeks as Nick Hornby makes reference to the week Arsenal were the featured 'hated team' at the end of Fever Pitch. Just the fact that 'little' Palace were in that conversation 15 months after having been the underdog heroes of that first Cup Final was a crazy turnaround. As for the race row I guess as it was broadcast on or around 10th Sept (from memory) that the interviews had already been taped. At this point in time 30 years ago Channel 4 had the ticking bomb in their hands to really screw our club and none of us knew what was coming. That's almost eery! |
Vinny Jones also said around this time that Palace were the one team he didn't look forward to playing against, due to our physicality. Funnily enough I took his comments as something of a back-handed compliment, he was someone who thrived on his hard man image and he felt that the majority of opponents could be bullied to an extent. But here he was admitting that Palace were the exception to the rule, we were a team who stood up for ourselves and gave as good as they got. Given the context of who was making the comments I took them in a relatively positive way. Certainly when you think of the spine of our team - Young and Thorn, Thomas and Gray, Wright and Bright - the phrase 'taking no prisoners' springs readily to mind. We were absolutely a physical team but we weren't overly dirty, as our reasonably good disciplinary record during that era showed. I can't remember many red cards at all other than those which weren't really relevant to the narrative e.g. Nigel Martyn against Wimbledon.
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I had a letter printed in 90 Minutes at the end of the previous season in response to the moaning fans in the previous week's issue re the 'outrageous decision' to award Palace the Fair Play award for the preceding month (was either March or April).
I pointed out it wasn't a 'decision' - it was based on the fact we got a single yellow card in 5 games! Hardly peak-Uruguay stuff! |
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Thomas & Gray in the middle backed down from nobody and I mean NOBODY. They way they handled so-called tough guy Steve McMahon at Villa Park always sticks out in my mind. |
The recent musical references on other threads has made me re-visit this page.
I do remember the Wimbledon and Sheff Utd games. The first was an incident packed cracker whereas the Sheff Utd one was a bit more of a slog. These were the days when we never knew we were beaten though and Thomas and co dragged us through the mire those last 10 mins against Sheff Utd. It felt doubly nice putting one over Bassett. It was very odd seeing Pembo in a Sheff Utd shirt though. |
This midweek game was probably the last match when all was still rosy in the garden that Coppell built. Coming home from the game I genuinely felt we had a chance of winning the title; a thought echoed by Geoff Thomas on BBC radio after the game. By the following Saturday morning, the race row news broke in the papers, shattering the club, and 7 years of a constant rise to the top of the rollercoaster, was about to take a sudden steep drop down.
I made the trip to Villa Park. I got lucky as I didn’t plan to go, but bumped into a mate in the local corner shop the day before, who told me he was going and asked if I fancied travelling up with him in another mates car. Remember us looking so strong on the night even if Villa gave us a few scares at the end. It looked like we’d taken the experience of the season before and added a bit more assurance to our game. I was right behind Ian Wright’s early winner and he came over to where I was standing behind the goal to celebrate with an unusually for him, subdued celebration, and I’m sure he looked straight at me holding up one finger in celebration. At the start of the season I had noted to friends that Wrighty wasn’t his normal excitable, enthusiastic self. I put that down at the time to him being more professional, older and wiser. When the Arsenal signing bombshell hit, I suddenly thought that maybe, mentally he was moving away from Palace already. He did say in his first book that in that summer, he knew Arsenal were after him and he begged Noades to let him go. Anyway, by the end of the game, we all celebrated behind that goal, our latest victory. I remember having words with a Villa steward who was clearly put out that we’d beaten them and unusually for me I gave it the big headed sarcastic response, telling him not to worry as I felt Villa would just about stay up this season. He wasn’t happy. Wonder if he remembered that a year later and had a chuckle to himself. |
Notts County going well, albeit with a negative goal difference. Was Warnock still there? Remember going there for the 3-2 but not sure that’s this season
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Remember reading about it in Neil’s autobiography, and in typically hard done by Warnock style, he said it was the worst decision he ever made, as County got relegated and he ended up getting shafted by the chairman and sacked the following season anyway. Chelsea hired Bobby Campbell and Warnock’s big moment had passed him by. :) |
I was also at this game with it being midweek and not interfering with my Saturday playing commitments. I remember it pretty much as the match report summarises - we played really well first half and should have scored more, then absorbed some heavy Villa pressure in the second half.
I must have been close to Bubbs in the stand behind the goal because we were also very close to the celebrations when Wright scored. In contrast to his subdued celebration Geoff Thomas was in very exuberant mood, giving it a loud 'come ON lads!' to the fans. I believe this is quite well captured in the TV footage of the goal. As a couple of footnotes: first the attendance, only 20,000, when was the last time Villa had a gate that low? And second, I believe (as has been pointed out to me before on here when I thought he'd been playing for us!) Paul Mortimer played for Villa in this game, shortly before he signed for Palace. |
I remember attending the Villa game. I took a half or whole's day holiday and got the train up (I am pretty sure it was the football special) and getting off at Witton to be frogmarched by West Midlands finest (erm) to the ground.
I remember how brilliant the Brazil kit looked under the lights (was this its first outing ?) and instantly being rewarded through Wrighty's early goal. I think I must have been near you Bubbs as I remember too Wrighty running to near where I was seated/standing. I seem to remember us being excellent that 1st half, especially Eddie and being gutted we hadn't added to our lead. I seem to recall us coming under a lot more pressure 2nd half but we had enough guile and know how to see it out. With 3 wins on the bounce we looked good to continue our upwardly momentum. Again, we were frogmarched back to the train station and I don't recall saying a word let alone celebrating such was WMP's notoriety towards football fans at that time. |
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New entries into the top ten for week ending 7 September 1991:
Insanity by Oceanic - This takes me back, a rave anthem of the time with a pulsating chorus and massively popular, it got to number three but was also the ninth best-selling single of the year, spending nine weeks in the top ten. Love...Thy Will Be Done by Martika - One of Prince's proteges / playthings, he co-wrote and produced this moody number which was later ripped off by Texas for their comeback smash hit Say What You Want. |
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Martikas 'Toy Soldiers' was a great tune, and she was quite hot too! |
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