Div 1 playoff

KdjaCL

Usually the best game of football ever, want Palace to win but once its a good game me not care.

kdjac

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Normally a class game alright, I have to agree.

I have no preference either way on who wins.

Harry2001

not a great first half Palace just the better side on chances created

eirebhoy

Well done Palace.

jongore

Poor game, well done Palace but now the tough work starts.

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Palace finished Sixth in Division 1.

I fear for their Premiership lives to be honest. I think they could have done with at least another year in the first division. Don't forget they were staring a relagation place in the face up until Dowie took over. They will struggle, and could do very badly in the Premier League. They finished thirteen points behind West Brom and twenty one points behind Norwich.

MisterAnarchy

Crystal Palace will be going straight back down as will West Brom.
Norwich have a bit of a cutting edge and may be good enough to stay up.
Why was the match on today instead of the normal Bank Holiday fixture ?

Harry2001

Originally posted by seansouth
Palace finished Sixth in Division 1.

I fear for their Premiership lives to be honest. I think they could have done with at least another year in the first division. Don't forget they were staring a relagation place in the face up until Dowie took over. They will struggle, and could do very badly in the Premier League. They finished thirteen points behind West Brom and twenty one points behind Norwich.

Yeah they will struggle and even if they get trashed every week it's still better to be there than not

Well done to Palace, West Ham were poor and showed little desire near the end

mike65

Palace may finnish with a Watford style points tally next season. Its great for Dowie though from 4th bottom to Premiership in 5 months!

Mike.

eirebhoy

If Palace do get relegated they will still be going down with a lot more money they came up with. I doubt they'll be a Watford though, I think Dowie has got them right. Also, Selhurst Park is no easy place to go to when its full.

mike65

Originally posted by Harry2001
West Ham were poor and showed little desire near the end

Did'nt see the game so I'll take your word for it. I can't understand how a team could'nt be motivated to the max by playing in a one-off promotion game. You'd imagine any player would be gagging for it.

Mike.

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Other side of the coin.

West Ham could now be doomed.

They are 33 million debt, and if they go into administration, won't they be docked points. They could end up in Division 2, or even worse, cease to exist as a football club.

woosaysdan

ANYONE GOT THE SCORE?

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Originally posted by woosaysdan
ANYONE GOT THE SCORE?

Was 1-0 to Palace. Shipperley scored in the 62nd minute.

Harry2001

Originally posted by mike65
Did'nt see the game so I'll take your word for it. I can't understand how a team could'nt be motivated to the max by playing in a one-off promotion game. You'd imagine any player would be gagging for it.

Mike.

Yep you would think so, Palace won because they wanted it more.

West Ham are a strange side and maybe it was nerves but they just didn’t look like a team fighting for a place in the Premiership. Pardew threw on Brian Deane with about 25 to go to use his arial ability and West Ham didn’t even start lobbing balls into the box to use him at the end, it was like they had given up.

The_B_Man

i usually go for the team with the most irish players on it. it cant hurt the internatioal side to have more irish players playin in the premiership.

phenom

Congrats to palace. I wanted West Ham to win tho. I think that they will go back down . Maybe they can stay up if they get a few more experienced players on the team. That might help.

The Rooster

Pardew's subsitutions were very strange. He took off Harewood, Connolly and Zamora, the only three guys he had capable of scoring. Within 3 minutes of going behind both Connolly and Zamora had goals disallowed. Both good finishes (Connolly's was terrific), but both marginally offside, so the decisions were correct but it showed that the Hammers had finally started to play and create chances.

Instead West Ham completely changed they way they were playing, and worse again they had nobody to feed off Deane (and later Hutchison) when the long balls were won.

But West Ham were robbed of a stone wall penalty when Carrick was scythed down late on.

Fair play to Palace and particularly Dowie. Though I feel they robbed both Sunderland and West Ham.

The Brigadier

Rooster, we outplayed both Sunderland and West Ham....I don't know how you can feel they were robbed?

Are we talking about the same sport here?

I just flew back in from Cardiff....Game was fantastic, atmosphere was great....

And now we get another crack at the prem.

Remember since Dowie took over we have one of the best records in the league...

Dowie is one of the best managers around, I really feel he will keep us up next season!

WE ARE PALACE...

WE ARE PALACE...

SUPER PALACE....

FROM SELHURST!!!!

IAIN DOWIE'S RED'N'BLUE ARMY!!!

The Rooster

Firstly let me confirm I'm a complete neutral in this.

1 How were Sunderland robbed?

Injury time equalizer by the black sub centre back (sorry, can't remember his name - Darren? ???) should have been disallowed. Shipperly fouled the keeper. That would have seen Sunderland through to the final and Palace out. I neednt even mention that Palace should have been down to 9 men at that time after the disgraceful cowardly stamp by Michael Hughes - who later scored the winning peno.

2. How were West Ham robbed?

Cast iron penalty denied them with only a couple of minutes left, when Carrick was taken down just inside the box. TV replays showed it was as clear a penalty as you could wish to see. I think the sun was in the ref's eyes!

I don't begrudge Palace at all. Not the first and won't be the last team to win games thanks to bad decisions by refs. But if I was a Sunderland or Hammers supporter I'd feel robbed!

eyerer

i think playoffs are a bit unfair to the team that finished third (sunderland i think)
they finished quite a few points above palace but palace who finished 6th will be in the prem next season
i think they finished sixth anyway

The Brigadier

Rooster,

1. Sunderland were completely outplayed in both legs. McACnut should have been sent off in the first leg and also in the league game a few weeks previous. When Gray was sent off, McAteer who was allready on a yellow should have walked for his intimidation of Gray!!

When Hughsie stamped on him he got what he deserved! Jason McAteer, probably the most disliked played in the league! (HAHAH!!)

Our centre half Darren Powell scored a perfectly legal goal. The referee was close enough to not see anything illegal.

The best team one through.....If Sunderland got through after being outplayed home AND away, then Palace would have been robbed!

2.
* West Ham and Brian Deane did not put Palace in the play-offs, they kept Palace in there (we were in there at the start of the day and at the end of the day). This is for all sports writers and the bit in brackets should be noted even more eagerly by Rob Hughes; how can they have been beyond us if we were already in the top six at the start of the day? Idiot.

* West Ham were not unlucky with the disallowed goals. They were quite clearly off-side and the decisions have been proved correct by replays showing the incidents again and again from various angles.

* Graham Poll was quite correct in refusing Michael Carrick a penalty. Mikele Leigertwood won the ball and played it so far in front of Carrick that another Palace defender (Danny Butterfield think) picked up the ball and played on. Again, this decision has been proved correct by many replays.

* I will be gracious enough to admit there was one penalty that should have been given. I only noticed this after watching the replay when I got home. It happened during the passage of play that saw Danny G horribly mis-kicking a Shaun Derry corner in front of goal. As the ball was played over, Christian Dailly had Tony Popovic in what can only be described as polar bear hug. The fact that he quite clearly pulled Pops away from the flight of the ball means that this was a penalty decision that warranted a spot-kick.

* Quite alarming was that despite the use of replays, Chris Kamara was hell-bent on telling the viewer that what clearly did NOT happen was in fact what was being shown. This despite the fact that the slow-mo quite clearly showed Kamara to be lying.

* Very much the same for followers of WHUFC. They fail like Chris Kamara to actually see what is in front of them and happening in real-time. They live in a land of make believe and Bobby Moore tinted glasses. Tony Gale had the temerity to argue that Palace would make the game scrappy and if they did so, Palace had a chance. If on the other hand, the game was flowing, Gale said that West Ham would win easily.

Eagles are up by virtue....not luck!!

The Rooster

Brigadier, I agree with most of your points. But you are obviously in fantasyland regarding some of your points. But you're well entitled to be given your team got promotion in the unlikeliest of circumstances (given where you were when Dowie took over).

But to put it simply:

If you fall foul of intimidation from Jason McAteer, you deserve all the red cards you get, and a kick upthehole to boot

Michael Hughes most definitely should have walked for his scumbagish and cowardly stamp.

Neil Shipperley clearly fouled Mart Poom before Powell scored.

Michael Carrick was fouled in the penalty box in about the 86th minute of the final.

The three points immediaely above are not opinions, they are facts. All three are clearly shown on TV replays.

But I've no problem with you living in your fantasyland and pretending the opposite to be true.:D