Articles
FYP Top 50 Players Countdown: No.22 - Jerry Murphy
22. Jerry Murphy
By Kevin Day
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Goals: 25 Cats named after him: 1 |
When I first left home and shared a scuzzy flat with mates we were adopted by a little stray cat. We could only imagine how hard his life must have been to make him think he'd take his chances with us instead but in he moved and within days had us eating out of his hand by letting him eat out of our hands. As we were all Palace fans it was unanimously agreed we call him Jerry Murphy. We called him that because like our favourite player he was skinny as a rake and had what looked like a floppy fringe. He also had the real Jerry's habit of disappearing for hours on end then doing something brilliant when he did turn up. We actually thought of getting a cat version of Peter Nicholas to do all the hard work and glare at our cat for being lazy. In fact the only thing different about the feline Jerry Murphy was that he was able to use his right paw. Human Jerry was the product of that brilliant youth team of the mid-70s and probably the most undervalued of the team of the '80s. He looked like a New Romantic had married a Mod and had a tiny baby. Rumour was he had to walk around in the shower to get wet. But what a passer! Particularly where Vince Hilaire was involved. I have many memories, probably false, of Jerry taking his hands out of his pockets, checking the wind and threading an inch perfect to Vince. Between 1975 and 1986 Jerry played 253 times for us from the magic heights of promotion though to 5,000 at home to Shrewsbury. He scored 25 goals, including 2 against brighton in one game and the winner away at Chelsea in another. He was only a few years older than us but he looked like us, like he went to the same pubs, the same gigs. I idolised him. Still do. Feline Jerry eventually went to cat Heaven. No such luck for human Jerry. He went to Chelsea and since then seems to have disappeared. If you know him, thank him for me.
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