Avid Palace fan and FYP Doctor, Martin Searle, takes a look ahead to Tuesday's game in the way 'oldsters' usually do - by talking about the past....

I’m concerned. I won’t pretend otherwise. Palace fans are buzzing for Tuesday in Cardiff, and some seem to think we’re at Wembley already. Us oldsters wince every time we hear a chorus of ‘Que Sera Sera’. “Wait until the final whistle at Cardiff”, we urge. Because we’re worried, not just about tempting fate, but about how the youngsters in particular (the fans, not the players) will deal with crushing disappointment - if, Dougie forbid, that happens.

In fact, Palace fans will deal with disappointment if we must, because we know that there is a silver lining to almost every monsoon cloud breaking over us. Sometimes it takes a long while to realise that there was a silver lining. And some of it may be seen by some as clutching at straws rather than silver. If I may, I’d like to share my experience as a season-ticket holder for 42 seasons (not bad for somebody in his early 40s *cough*), and train the rest of you up a bit. And as an extra challenge, ask for your help in finding the positive in a few cases where even I struggle.

Let’s start with simple ones:

September 1989: Liverpool 9 Palace 0

Without this crushing defeat, we wouldn’t have enjoyed the 4-3 win in the FA Cup Semi-Final so much – maybe it wouldn’t even have happened, as Liverpool might have realised from the start that they had a battle on their hands.

Wembley Play-off Final 1996: Palace 1 Leicester 2 (aet)

The game of Claridge’s shin. Last few seconds, devastation. But without it, our own ‘Hopkin, looking to curl one’ last-minute moment a year later against the Blades wouldn’t have tasted so sweet – and I’m sure the experience of 1996 made the Palace support lift their game to urge the lads on in a ‘we’re bloody well not losing twice’ way. And also it gave us a focussed reason to hate #claridgeisawanker. As if one needed a specific reason.

April 2001: Wolves 0 Palace 2

Shambles. Nothing less. Inept. Spineless. Alan Smith and the team booed off  in a hail of season ticket books. A wonderfully empty gesture at the end of the last home game of the season…. Doomed. But this defeat paved the way for a latter day miracle of caretaker Kember, and 2 away wins, with Saint Dougie scoring at Stockport in the 87th minute. And the wait for the result from Huddersfield taking 5 years off my life expectancy.

April 2010: Palace 0 QPR 2

It felt like we were completely doomed to relegation. And who had beaten us? -  nauseating Raynes Park Queenies, who would have stayed in the relegation mire themselves if we’d won, with their manager a certain Colin W, possibly providing the inspiration for Captain Schettino this week. Not just relegation, but possibly the end of the club. Burger Bar Don Madgwick was going around like the Ancient Mariner, saying “that’s it, it’s all over, Palace are finished”. But of course, in the end, without that, we wouldn’t have had Hillsborough…. And I wouldn’t have lost another 5 years off my life, or smoked 20 cigarettes passively at halftime in Sheffield either, but hey.

Now, that was fairly easy, wasn’t it? – some really big highs, only made possible by the lows before them. Let’s try some less obvious ones:

December 2003: Palace 1 Crewe 3

Not a dramatic promotion loser or relegation threatener, but the very definition of dispiriting. Under a caretaker manager (Kit Symons), freezing cold, tiny crowd, 2 down in 15 minutes, “Jordan,Jordan, sort it out”, 22nd in the table at the end. The silver lining? No, not the amazing run for the play-offs under D*wie, Cardiff etc.. Too obvious. No, firstly, the always-to-be-cherished memory of the fog descending at halftime to the loudest cheers of the night, and “Jordan has a fog machine”. And, secondly, to become a touchstone for loyalty as a Palace fan. If you weren’t there that night, your view wasn’t valid any more. Before then, the best we had for that was ‘at Oakwell in [insert season] midweek in [insert winter month]’. The official attendance was 12,000ish, but that included ST holders, and it was probably 8-9,000. Though if one believes people on the bulletin boards who say they were there, it was probably more like 25,000 – about the same as saw the Sex Pistols at Manchester Free Trade Hall. Oh, and I was there. The Crewe game, not the Pistols, sadly.

Boxing Day 1979: Brighton 3 Palace 0

Total abject humiliation against our bitter rivals. Palace never showed up on the pitch, though Hove Park and environs were a different matter. BUT it gave us the song “Can you hear the Palace sing, the Brighton run away, and we will fight for ever more, because of……..” A legacy of 32 years and counting (and singing, with the word ‘again’ inserted, of course…).

New Year’s Day 2011: Millwall 3 Palace 0

Total abject humiliation against our bitter rivals. Palace never showed up on the pitch. (isn’t ‘copy and paste’ useful?). But, probably just in time, the bullet for Burley, and after a bit of Howe’s-your-father, the Dougie managerial era commenced. And of course, we ended 2011 with a perfect bookend at Knuckledragger Central. So we’re smiling now.

October 2005: Palace 0 Brighton 1

A dreadful midweek game, looking like a ‘classic’ 0-0 until Paul McShane (who is, as I write this, a loan player at Palace!) headed a 78th minute winner for the Weed to win at the Theatre of Improvised Performances for the first time in 22 years. And all the pubs for miles around were closed afterwards on police orders. Nothing to love at all. Except it surely intensified the joy when we won at the Withereddean only a month later, and was another flavouring ingredient in ‘Oh What an Amex Night’.

Now, some real straw-clutching:

May 2005: Charlton 2 Palace 2

Ummmmmmm. We got to sing ‘Who the fuck is laughing now?’ at Charlton fans a lot in the seasons afterwards. Best I can do.

Now you’ve got the hang of it, I’d love suggestions on the positives we can take away from these ones – Higginbotham’s injury-time equaliser for Southampton in 2005, the 3-0 home defeat to Watford in the 2006 play-offs, the extra-time defeat at Ashton Gate in the 2008 play-offs, the kicking off the park of Peter Taylor by Southampton as we lost the 1976 Cup semi (it gave me a reason to detest the Scummers, but I’d have found one of those soon enough anyway), and the Mark Hughes equaliser in the 1990 Final that denied us the Cup via a dreadful replay, and condemned football to 20+ years of Alkie F success. Because I’m damned if I can.

So for Tuesday, two more to remember. The first will be obscure for many:

Feb 1985 Palace 0 Wimbledon 5

Embarrassingly one-sided. My recollection is of a Wimbledon team of giants heading every goal from set pieces against a midget Palace defence. But without that, we wouldn’t have had the intensity and passion of the support at the next game, one of my favourites ever, away at Craven Cottage. We battled away to a 2-2 draw, and went completely ballistic behind the goal at the Putney end when the equaliser went in. Steve Coppell acknowledged our cheers as he walked past us at the end with an enthusiasm that showed that he realised that we had a real bond with him.

April 1974 Cardiff 1 Palace 1

We needed a draw in the last game of the season to stay up in the Second Division by relegating them. We didn’t get it, despite going ahead, and laying siege to their goal after the equaliser. And things got a bit rough around Ninian Park afterwards. But without the relegation to the Third Division, we wouldn’t have had some of the enormous fun of the Big Mal and early Venables (note for younger readers - we liked him then) years, the glamour, the cup run, the fedora, the champagne, the cigars, Fiona Richmond… Ok, we, the fans, didn’t actually get those last three things…

So why finish with these two? Because I think we have a bond with Dougie that is shaping up to be as strong as the one with ‘Sir’ Steve, and because if with that, passionate support, and a great team effort, we get another 1-1- draw in Cardiff, we’ll be grinning all over our faces, and won’t need to be looking for silver linings (although we’d instantly have been given a huge one for the FA Cup defeat at Derby).

But keep practising – if you’re a Palace fan, you’re going to need that skill at SOME point in the future. It’s part of the fun of the rollercoaster ride.

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