Game five - Crystal Palace away

2nd August 2008

The final pre season game before the real action starts saw us descend upon the capital for a friendly with championship side Crystal Palace. Normally I doubt I'd have bothered for this one but annoyingly Selhurst Park had been missed last season so I owed it to myself to make the trip.

After careful planning, the three of us making the trip arranged to meet up at Picadilly Circus with me and Jimmy arriving from St Pancras (and not St Pancreas eh Mr Skinner?) and Helen arriving from Euston Street. However we were soon informed that due to "police incident" Picadilly Circus tube station was closed to us.... bollocks! Quick rearrangement and we were ready to explore London.... although no one knew what to do..... ooops!

In the end we headed over to Covent Garden and spent a good ooooh three minutes looking round there? Nothing on apart from some violinists so when in doubt, head off in search of football grounds....

First stop - Arsenal and the Emirates Stadium. It can only be described as amazing. Can't wait till we play there and I can check it off the list of grounds visited!

While in the area it would have been rude not to have popped in and see the old girl of Highbury. Sadly this is a ground I can never tick off the list as I never made it before Arsenal moved out. The main stand is all that's left of her and even that appears to be on the way out.
After that we headed in search of Tottenham's ground..... less said about that the better!

And so on to Crystal Palace. Arrived at Selhurst Park in good time and after a quick bag search and confiscation of my Lynx (it's a friendly for christs sake!!) we were allowed in just in time to see the players warming up. Check out the student signalling for us to "Move Along"
News that Leicester were in town had clearly spread through the Croydon area as tickets were hard to come by - as you can see - it was near enough a sell out...ish! Give or take 20,000.

The sign in the toilets made me chuckle... I'm childish like that!

When the others arrived at the ground, the main attraction was unveiled - The Away Day Flag! For the record, the top line says "Foxestalk.co.uk" and not "oxestalk" which would be something completely different!!

The game itself was your typical friendly - quite entertaining in pathces but lacked the excitement and general cut and thrust of a full on league encounter. Matt Oakley gave us a 1-0 lead but a good strike from Victor Moses meant we shared the spoils. Max Gradel was again the star of the show for us and received a standing ovation from both home and away fans when he departed.


After heading back to the centre of London, we had about an hour to kill before the train back home.... and what else to do then head to the scene where the day should have began. Picadilly Circus!

Weary travellers - Helen and Jimmy, complete with tourist bus and the bright lights of london.

And finally the away day companions, me and Helen. Ready and geared up for another season following the team here there and everywhere.

So that was pre season. 5 games done, a hat full of goals and a renewed sense of optimism ahead of our first ever season in the third tier of English Football. MK Don's in the first game? To quote Kerrea Gilbert, our new right back: "If they've got a good team, let them have a good team, cos we'll have a better team!" Bring it on!