The business end of the season

A little change of pace today from environmental stuff to football. It’s a long story, but the team I follow in English football is Crystal Palace. Whilst formerly in Premier League, they have spent a couple of seasons now in the Championship.

Until recently, I had never managed to see Palace play live, but on a trip to London a few weeks ago, I made my way out to Selhurst Park to watch the game against Barnsley. Barnsley had just beaten Chelsea the weekend before in the FA Cup, and a big crowd of 17, 459 turned out for the match. I went with Janet, a mate from the Greenpeace Science Unit. We had a great time – a greasy pre-match lunch of sausages and chips, followed by a 2-0 win for Palace and drinks at the pub afterwards made for a good afternoon! The photo above is me at the game.

Anyway, to summarise where things are at now: the current season got off to a disastrous start, and a third of the way in to the season, Palace was in the relegation zone. As tends to happen in these situations, the manager got fired, a new one arrived, and Palace went on a long undefeated streak, moving in to the promotion zone. There have been a few late season wobbles, but after a 2-1 win last night over Stoke, Palace are back in the play-off spots.

There are just four games to go this season, and the table is as tight as you can imagine, so anything could happen from here – a few nervous games to come!