BT Sport Documentary - The Team of the 80s

[Am Phibian]

Originally Posted by Tom's Old Man

And Flanagan (I think).

Not forgetting he nicked Clive Allen aswell for a pittance after he had only played a short while for us which basically meant we had lost Sansom for nothing.

No wonder we rioted in 1982. Any sane Palace fan back then would.

My contribution was crushing a policeman's helmet. Hard me.

Che Phibian

[orp pisshead1]

Originally Posted by Coastal Palace

Probably because he had his hands in the turnstile tills.

[orp pisshead1]

Originally Posted by Tom's Old Man

And Flanagan (I think).

Yeah I thought so too but wasn’t 100% certain.

[monkey]

Originally Posted by Am Phibian

Not forgetting he nicked Clive Allen aswell for a pittance after he had only played a short while for us which basically meant we had lost Sansom for nothing.

No wonder we rioted in 1982. Any sane Palace fan back then would.

My contribution was crushing a policeman's helmet. Hard me.

Che Phibian

When you say ‘we’ I sort of stood watching from a safe distance, close to the gates ready for a quick exit

[Am Phibian]

Originally Posted by monkey

When you say ‘we’ I sort of stood watching from a safe distance, close to the gates ready for a quick exit

As would I have done 'cept was right at the front behind the goal in the middle of it all with no escape. When in Rome/ The Bush.

[Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Maiden Eagle

The story goes, on this night out, was that Ian Walsh was mouthing off at Swindlehurst that he (DS) wouldn't get his place back in the team, because Walsh was better than him. Apparently an altercation occurred, as a result. Venables wasn't there, but heard what happened and took Walsh's side and not long after, Swindlehurst was packed off to Derby, on loan (signed for them permanently, eventually).
Apparently a lot of the players, respected Swindlehurst and didn't like Walsh and were pretty upset about the whole thing
Obviously this did very little for team spirit, which might explain the inept display at the Goldstone Ground on Boxing Day, a few days later.
And of course, things gradually got worse and worse.

Kind of ties in with what I heard (I posted a vague reference in this post): To view the link you have to Register or Login

The only difference I heard was (and it may just be a continuation of the same story) was that it all blew up at Dave Swindlehust wedding.

[Am Phibian]

Ian Walsh wasn't even that good. The least talented of the nine or so youth players that became first team regulars and probably why he was sub a lot. If he thought he was better than Swindles he was deluded.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by Am Phibian

Ian Walsh wasn't even that good.

He was for Wales (my national team). But struggled for us.

[Since 1968]

The unfortunate thing about the break up of the team of the 80s was it paved the way for the worst thing ever to happen to Palace. 1st July 1982 the arrival of Mullery, a despised man and the worst manager we have ever had.

[Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by bubbs11

They were a bunch of kids that only knew success. Right from their early youth days coming through together, it was just an upward trajectory. They didn’t know failure. The minute they hit a bump in the road around midway into that first season in Division 1, they struggled to cope.

In fact it was the Liverpool 3-0 mauling at Anfield that began the slide. The players went into that game like all the others, not fearing the opposition and believing they could win. A lot of paper talk in the build up about the ‘team of the 80’s’ coming along to take Liverpool’s crown, and the young players bought into it. That Liverpool side ripped us apart.

If you look at the stats, we’d lost just 4 games out of our first 22 games before that Liverpool match. The following 26 games saw us defeated 12 times.

Then Kenny left in the summer against his will. Came into training as normal and Venners shouted out from his office, ‘don’t bother getting changed, you’re off to Arsenal.’ Soon after Venners himself jumped ship after a ropey start and that was that. The kids that had come through worshipped him and basically were lost without their ‘dad’. Vince admitted that he was looking to leave the very minute Venners went to QPR. The remaining players showed absolutely no respect to Gradi after the short lived Big Mal stint.

Very sad to have to live through that slide. We went from top dogs and 20,000 + home crowds to a struggling Div 2 side playing in front of less than 10,000 within a couple of seasons. That beautiful sun and promise of ‘79 was replaced by heavy, dark clouds around the place, symbolised by the demise of the Whitehorse End, with ugly boarding and a smattering of supporters replacing an attractive looking terrace packed to the gunnels with excited red, white and blue fans.

Great post Bubbs...

As you allude to there was something symbolic about demolition of the Whitehorse End. The previous season had promised so much, and there was the thought that large crowds would be trying to get into a smaller capacity ground due to the Whitehorse being out of commission, so we got season ticket for the Arthur. (First and last ST for me). About halfway through the season it was obvious... Boy were we wrong! The football became abysmal, and the Whitehorse a sad muddy hole in the ground that never seemed to change throughout the season. It all ending in relegation that year, and nobody seemed too upset about it to be honest - it was like putting a sick dog out of its misery.

By September that next season (1981) not only was most if not all the team gone, but so was I - moving to America - I'm not sure if there is a connection...

[Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Since 1968

The unfortunate thing about the break up of the team of the 80s was it paved the way for the worst thing ever to happen to Palace. 1st July 1982 the arrival of Mullery, a despised man and the worst manager we have ever had.

Ain't that the truth!

[Am Phibian]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog

Great post Bubbs...

As you allude to there was something symbolic about demolition of the Whitehorse End. The previous season had promised so much, and there was the thought that large crowds would be trying to get into a smaller capacity ground due to the Whitehorse being out of commission, so we got season ticket for the Arthur. (First and last ST for me). About halfway through the season it was obvious... Boy were we wrong! The football became abysmal, and the Whitehorse a sad muddy hole in the ground that never seemed to change throughout the season. It all ending in relegation that year, and nobody seemed too upset about it to be honest - it was like putting a sick dog out of its misery.

By September that next season (1981) not only was most if not all the team gone, but so was I - moving to America - I'm not sure if there is a connection...

If you look at a struggling in Division two Palace XI from 1982 you'd be surprised by how many were actually still at the club. Cannon, Doris, Gilbert, Murphy, Hilaire, Smillie were there. Nicholas, Sansom, Fenwick, Walsh and Swindles and Burridge had gone.

[Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Am Phibian

If you look at a struggling in Division two Palace XI from 1982 you'd be surprised by how many were actually still at the club. Cannon, Doris, Gilbert, Murphy, Hilaire, Smillie were there. Nicholas, Sansom, Fenwick, Walsh and Swindles and Burridge had gone.

True... I guess it just felt like there had been an exodus... Imagine 6 players out of today's team suddenly not being there!

[bubbs11]

Originally Posted by Since 1968

The unfortunate thing about the break up of the team of the 80s was it paved the way for the worst thing ever to happen to Palace. 1st July 1982 the arrival of Mullery, a despised man and the worst manager we have ever had.

Followed by the best manager we ever had!

Steve Wicks has been mentioned and reminds me of a funny story in Hilaire’s book. Apparently when Noades first arrived he’d spent a lot of money for Steve Wicks at the time, but he got injured for 5 months because Gradi had introduced gymnastics to training and Wicks done his back in vaulting a pommel horse. Apparently Noades walked about for the last 2 months of his injury with a badge saying, ‘I saw Steve Wicks play...once!’ Wore it to half a dozen home games apparently.

[Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Maiden Eagle

I'm pretty certain that the picture was from the Sunday Express and the rest of the headline was 'Palace on top of the World'.

I'm not sure what paper it is, but yes you got the headline right.

Someone now no longer with us posted this on the Nostalgia Photo thread, so I can't get a better copy unfortunately:

[Mad Max]

One of the other papers had a headline "the eagles have landed,on top"

[Louis]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog

I'm not sure what paper it is, but yes you got the headline right.

Someone now no longer with us posted this on the Nostalgia Photo thread, so I can't get a better copy unfortunately:

Looks like the Sunday Express

[Heppolette]

I was only a kid but can remember the stories of Ian Walsh not being popular with the other players and staff. Remember watching Swindlehurst play for the ressies at home, I think against Bournemouth, when he’d lost his place briefly to to Walsh and not appearing too happy with life - gave a short shrift to the kids gathered at the tunnel.

Interesting to see the stuff about Sansom leaving against his will as there were stories doing the rounds at the time about him needing to because of personal circumstances.

Can’t recall the timings but imagine Bloye’s exploits were probably a bit of a catalyst for all the players leaving.

Venables second spell in the late nineties don’t exactly inspire confidence in his intentions either.

[Lee sinnots ear]

Super al pls check your private message

[barnabas]

Originally Posted by Heppolette

I was only a kid but can remember the stories of Ian Walsh not being popular with the other players and staff. Remember watching Swindlehurst play for the ressies at home, I think against Bournemouth, when he’d lost his place briefly to to Walsh and not appearing too happy with life - gave a short shrift to the kids gathered at the tunnel.

Interesting to see the stuff about Sansom leaving against his will as there were stories doing the rounds at the time about him needing to because of personal circumstances.

Can’t recall the timings but imagine Bloye’s exploits were probably a bit of a catalyst for all the players leaving.

Venables second spell in the late nineties don’t exactly inspire confidence in his intentions either.

The players had no problem with Walshy at all. He had his limitations but then so did David Swindlehurst. Bubbs11 had it right for the most part, though there were other factors - the goalkeeping situation in particular.