Newcastle v Crystal Palace - Match Preview

A few weeks ago, the thought of Alan Pardew and his ‘barmy army’ coming to St. James’ Park was the last thing I needed. A chance for that smug, ill-mannered, short-tempered arsehole to pretty much relegate us was a thing of nightmares. Now, however, I relish the opportunity to have them come here and hopefully, rip them a new one!

You know that stone that gets caught in the grip of your shoe sometimes, and every time you step, you can just feel it, irritating you, but you just can’t quite get it to come loose? That’s the kind of feeling I have about Pardew. The mere sight of the man makes me physically angry.

Like I say, a few weeks ago, this would be a game I was worried about; Palace were doing well in the first half of the season, and we, well, we’ve been terrible, haven’t we? Things have changed now though, and Palace are in very bad form. The turn up for the books, is that we seem to be in not so horrific form for a change.

A win against Swansea, and draws against Manchester City and Liverpool; both games I was expecting to get a hammering from, puts us in quite a good frame of mind for Palace. Yes, we’re still very much in the bottom three, and fighting for our lives, but we are actually fighting now. With us being at home as well, we have no reason why we shouldn’t be sweeping them aside. They aren’t a great team, (granted, neither are we) their manager, as we well know, is awful, and they’ve not had great results recently. If we do pull it off, and follow it up with a win against Aston Villa, with some other results falling kindly for us, the great escape is well and truly on. The hope is almost unsettling, isn’t it?

I also believe them still being in a cup could help us. I know it’s in just under a month, but will they be fully focused on the league right now? Will their players want to put their foot in for every ball still? I’m not so sure they will. We have to take full advantage of this and keep up with the high intensity we’ve been playing with the last few weeks.

The only thing I’d like to see changed, is Mitrovic coming in for Cisse up top. The Senegalese international may have got himself a goal last weekend, but he doesn’t compare to the big Serb in my opinion. His hold up play could work wonders and allow Townsend, Sissoko and Perez/Wijnaldum to run off him and hopefully give him some service back that he desperately needs. Other than that, the rest of the team seems our best bet. Maybe Mbabu in for Dummett if he’s fit?

In short, another must win game, I hate Pardew, and to quote a certain Mr Kevin Keegan: I will LOVE IT if we beat them. LOVE IT!