Cod Almighty | Diary

Are we being kept in the dark?

4 December 2018

Those of us who were living in London in the 1990s remember Crystal Palace very well. Mainly defeats, but the memories are not all unhappy.

There was a late cameo by Wayne Burnett, coming back from injury and immediately giving shape to the whole team, although the match was long lost. There was the time we let in five in the first half then partied through the second. And there was one win: the year the entire Palace defence misjudged the flight of a clearance, allowing Bradley Allen to score the only goal of the game.

Like the Middlesbrough cup tie in 1989, we are away at opponents three divisions above us. Like Palace, we had fresh memories of Middlesbrough then. We had played them in the league less than three years before. And less than three years after Marc North ran around and scored two goals, we were playing Boro in the second flight. It's not a prediction, but Middle-Aged Diary will most certainly be saying "told you so" if in 2021 Danny Collins (he'll still be going, surely) is preparing to face Wilfried Zaha in the league.

Crystal Palace might not be the FA Cup draw of the club accountant's dreams, but we aren't accountants

Crystal Palace might not be the FA Cup draw of the club accountant's dreams, but we aren't accountants. So, whether we end up snatching a 1-0 or having to make our own entertainment during a 0-5, let's enjoy it.

Those fans who think like accountants, and those who actually like football, should be on tenterhooks today as we wait for the club to respond to Matt Dean's report that the floodlights at Blundell Park may no longer meet Football League standards.

Cleethorpes has the terrain for it. Look back towards it from the shore and there, between the Dock Tower and the water tower overlooking Chapman's Pond, the pylons spider the sky. A regular childhood visitor to Cleethorpes, among my earliest football memories is the urgent procession up Grimsby Road, its pace increasing as the floodlights come into view. In any town, but in Grimsby especially, the floodlights were the first part of the excited anticipation of a football game.

Yes, that is so much sentiment. What of it? Football is a sentiment business. If you don't know that, you are reading the wrong fanzine. And besides, the club needs some kind of lights. It would be an incredibly bad bit of business to spend money replacing the ones we have at Blundell Park even as we are trying to relocate.

Dean's report is short on detail, which is all the more reason why the club should be preparing a detailed statement. When detail is lacking, rumour abounds. Potentially this matters. A lot.