Monday 21 December 2009

Exclusive interview with Neil Danns

I recently caught up with influential Palace midfielder Neil Danns who spoke about his return from injuries, his love of music and why Victor Moses can be one of the best.

Who is your all time hero?

One of my all time heroes is John Barnes, because growing up as a young black boy John Barnes was one of the few men of colour at Liverpool, who i supported as a kid so he sort of inspired to be a footballer as a kid

What was your perception of the club before you signed, and has that changed since you’ve been here?

My perception of the club was good as I knew it had spent some time in the Premiership and produced alot of good talent such as Routledge, Fitz Hall etc, and I think everyone in the game knows who Simon Jordan is , so to be honest before I came I had good views on Palace.

After you arrived at Selhurst Park you were plagued by injuries for a long time. Did this make it difficult to settle into the dressing room and the area as a whole?

Yes I found it difficult to settle at first because of my injuries, because I wasn’t able to bond with the players on the pitch and training ground because I was injured so I felt a bit embarrassed that I had got a bad injury so soon after I signed so kept myself to myself.

You seem to have put your injury problems behind you now and your performances have been inspirational, are the Palace fans seeing the best of you now?

Yeah I think they are starting to see the best of me, I am always looking to improve though so there is still more to come and i would like to have a few more goals this year but I’m confident they will come

What do you make of the Palace fans?

I think the palace fans have been brilliant for me personally because i can understand some were frustrated with my injury at first, but they haven’t held it against me and have been brilliant with me since I’ve been back playing so I have nothing but positive comments for them on a personal note.

Who do you most admire in the Palace squad and why?

In terms of talent probably Victor Moses because the boy is seriously gifted and he can go as far as he wants if he works hard enough.

What effect have the off-field financial problems made to the spirit in the dressing room? Has there been much discussion over it on the training ground?

To be honest we can’t effect what happens off the pitch so we just stay focused on what we can affect and that’s on the pitch, course we chat now and again but that’s just human, anyone in any job would do so if there employers were constantly in the papers for financial reasons.

Has it brought the group closer?

We are a close knit group and any negatives always bring us closer so that’s how we turn negatives into positives in those situations.

You played under David Gold at Birmingham, how does he compare to
Simon Jordan, in the way he runs the club?


To be honest you don’t really see much of what goes on in the running of the club and behind the scenes, we just see the football side of things so I couldn’t comment

The side this season seems to have a lot of potential to do good things, what would be a realistic expectation for this season?

I think realistically we could be outsiders for the playoffs, and considering, if we achieved this we will have surprised a few.

What do you make of the “everybody Danns now” song that fans sing for you? Would you like it to be played after you score like they used to with the old announcer?
I love any song that is sung for me, that chant is good because it gets people bouncing so I like it alot ha ha.

Will you get to spend much time with your family at home over Christmas or does football kind of overtake it?

Football overtakes the holidays but I’m lucky enough to have my kids and partner with me up here so that’s good but I wont get to see the rest of my family and friends until after Christmas, we will be training on Christmas day

Coming from a musical family was football or music your first love?

Music was at first I was an avid Michael Jackson fan as a kid I could do all the moves, but once I started playing football on the playground that was it football took over.

What have your musical influences been?

My influences in music came from my mum and dad, I grew up in a house where music was always playing, in the house or the car, so I was hooked from early on.

What is your favourite album?

My favourite album is probably the black and white album by Michael Jackson, it has some classics on there, and that was when I was fully into Michael Jackson as a kid, certain songs on that album remind me of certain times in my childhood, good memories ha ha.

First ever record bought?

First record ever bought think it was Gloria Estafan ha ha don’t ask me why, my dad liked her so, I was a sheep and followed I think I was only about 7 or something lol.

Did working on your music help you through your injuries?

Music has always been something that helps me relax, so yeah you could probably say it did get me thru some of my dark times during my injury definitely.

Do you see music as your career route after your football career?

I see it as one of many routes I want to take, I am very ambitious and want to achieve many things in life as you only live once but I will give music a right good go along with other media and business ventures

Visit Neil at http://dannzy.com/ and you can follow him on his official twitter

Sears recalled by Hammers


Neil Warnock has revealed that striker Freddie Sears will return be recalled by West Ham in January. He said: "West Ham have asked for him to go back in January,"

"They have one or two problems up front and he is their player at the end of the day.

"He'll be with us for the next two games but it's likely he'll go back after that."

All I can say is they must have some severe problems if their relying on Freddie then they've got bigger problems than I thought possible. This season he has shown nothing to support his massive reputation he had when he arrived at Selhurst Park.

He has pace and his movement can be good but he can't finish his breakfast and his distribution is mostly poor. The gulf in ability between him and Victor Moses just goes to show the difference between a highly rated youngster and someone very very special.

Sunday 20 December 2009

Kop chase Vic to recue Rafa?


Under-fire Kop boss Rafa Benitez is set to turn to young Victor Moses in the hope of saving Liverpool's so far disastrous season.

He faces a tough battle though as a host of clubs both at home and abroad including Tottenham, Arsenal, Hoffenheim and Barcelona all chasing the signature of our boy.

But while these sides decide wether to take a risk on the starlet, Liverpool are looking to jump to the head of the queue with a £5m offer.

Palace 1-1 Barnsley

Not only was the game on but it also contained one of the most sensational goals ever witnessed at Selhurst. Moses saved a point for the Palace with an unbelievable 18-yard overhead kick straight into the top corner of the net.

It was a good job he did aswell as his more experienced colleagues queued up to miss guilt-edge chances; probably the most guilty being Darren Ambrose who boasted a third minute penalty miss.

Claude Davis, Clint Hill and Alan Lee also missed chances and we were made to pay when Barnsley scored with their first real opportunity as is the way with visiting sides at Selhurst now.

Luckily Moses rescued a point shortly after the break and secured a very good result in the circumstances although admittedly it could have been much better against a Barnsley side who came with a bemusing game plan to shut up shop and stifle our midfield.


His moment of brilliance will once again set Premier League tongues wagging as the January transfer window edges closer and closer. Neil Warnock was certainly reiterating the fact we are selling the player in his post match press conference:"What can you say that I've not said before? I look at the top of the Premiership and think there must be something wrong if they do not come down (to look at him).

"He's finally clicked because he is doing the mucky bits of football now. He's doing the hard graft and you cannot get anywhere without doing that.

"He is now tackling back. He will remember me in years to come when I am asking him for tickets. I would pay money to watch Victor at the moment."

But we can't dwell on the fact we will lose Victor we must instead enjoy him while we have him and savour moments like this as a few years down the line when he's starting for England, you can say you watched him when he started.

Friday 18 December 2009

Will the game be on


Normally on a Friday i would be previewing all the team news for the upcoming game. This week however after the freezing conditions that have swept across the south-east the debate is all about whether the game will be postponed.

The weather men claim predict that there will be a high of 2 degrees in South London tomorrow and i some how believe that our, lets face it state of the art, tarpaulin sheet won't be much of a defence against the frost.

Warnock may be quietly hoping for a postponement as a virus that has struck down five members of the squad including the influential pairing of Darren Ambrose and Neil Danns who were worryingly the worst affected by the illness and didn't train for most of the week.

One person with fingers and toes crossed that the game is on will be Simon Jordan. It is rumoured that he has this week received a winding up order by Her majesty's Revenue and Customs due to the club falling behind on payments and a home game being called off with the loss of revenue that entails would be desperately untimely.

Kalou handed trial


No not that Kalou, we've handed a trial to his older and slighlty past it brother, Bonaventure who has even less of an idea of where the goal is than Salomon.

Neil Warnock confirmed that the 31-year-old will play a few reserve games as he runs the rule over the Ivorian: "He is training with us and he will probably play a couple of reserve games." said Warnock.

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Djilali returns to the nest


Youngster Kieran Djilali has returned to Palace today after completing his month-long loan deal at Chesterfield.

The winger bagged himself one goal in six appearances at saltergate and I'm sure he will return to the squad a much sharper player.

Loan spells in the lower leagues is exactly what our young players need, to gte some games under their belts and also to acclimatise them to the rough and tumble world of frist-team football.

Saturday 12 December 2009

Sheffield United 2-0 Palace

Yet another frustrating performance has followed an impressive win. Just as happened before against Doncaster last week the lads just never turned up, didn't threaten and showed nothing for the travelling fans to shout about.

We went behind to yet another contentious refereeing decision as the linesman adjudged Lee Williamson's shot to have crossed the lane despite Claude Davies insisting that he had cleared in time.


The goal stood and we never really recovered.


I was not at the game personally but from reports from those who did travel we offered very little going forward and the Blades could have extended their lead long before they finally did in the 90th minute.

You have to question Warnocks decision to remove Clyne from the side after a such a good performance and grabbing his first goal in the week. I feel he concentrated too much on matching Sheffield United's physicality and not enough on the thing's that made Tuesday's performance so good. I feel Clyne, despite being a right back gives us a real threat going forward even at left back, while also being more than capable defensively. Warnock may point to United's strength but last season he was the stand out player on the pitch in one of his first appearances.

But maybe its too simple too blame the manager who we have to admit is doing a terrific job, the players are as much to blame, it is they who were second to every ball this afternoon.

Neil Warnock has just said that a bout of diarrhoea this morning struck five players down, which may give a few clues for why we performed so badly but who knows. All i can comment on is the performance, the result and the worrying trend of a sensational performance followed by a disastrous one. Even more worrying is that there is no real trend in the pattern for instance being bad at home or bad away, we just seem to be very inconsistent all of a sudden.

We've got an in form Barnsley on Saturday at Selhurst Park so we will have to see how we fare against them to further understand whats going on at the moment.

Here's hoping we can get back to winning ways!

Next up: Sheffield United

So the gaffer leads us up north to his old stomping ground once more to take on his apprentice Kevin Blackwell in the hope of continuing the current hoodoo he has over his beloved Blades.

The lads face a tough test today when we will meet a team not dissimilar to ours in its approach to the game.

We won't be able to bully the blades like we did Watford and Reading but what we can do is compete with them negate their approach to the game and give our more talented players the license to hurt them.

This worked beautifully against Reading but it very much relies on the form of Darren Ambrose and Victor Moses who were at their sparkling best on Tuesday night.

If picked today Moses, which he should be, will be playing on his 19th birthday so happy birthday to the lad and good luck for today.

United will be without Darius Henderson and Toni Kallio while surprise surprise Nick Montgomery is suspended. Neil has no simmilar concerns with the only absentee being Paddy McCarthy who will be sidelined for three months after undergoing shoulder surgery this week.

This game worries me, the signs are ominous; we won three of our last five games, we're unbeaten in eight and worst of all we are unbeaten against Sheffield United under Neil Warnock. Knowing Palace as i do, something has to change and i fearthat change could be today.

Heres hoping it doesnt!

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Reading 2-4 Palace

An exquisite brace from wonder kid Victor Moses sealed a 4-2 victory in a pulsating tie at the Madjeski Stadium.

Nathanial Clyne opened the scoring with his first senior goal, and what a goal to open your account with. He cut in from the right wing and unleashed a shot from 20 yards that beat the keeper at his near post. Reading hit back with a Sigurdsson header before Moses retook the lead for Palace with an arrowed strike from 30 yards and Darren Ambrose found his shooting boots again with a near carbon copy of Clyne's goal.

Reading came back again after the break converting a penalty conceded by a clumsy Jose Fonte challenge.

After some nervy moments Moses cut inside from the left dropped his shoulder beat two defenders and finished emphatically to seal the win and leave the Eagles just two points of the Play-offs.

It was a sensational performance and just the right tonic for Palace fans who were left deflated after last weeks financial news and the embarrassing defeat at the hands of Doncaster Rovers.

Reading v Palace

So the question is which Palace will turn up tonight to face Reading?

The side that thrashed Watford or the side that were thrashed by Doncaster Rovers? Only time will tell but personally I am have faith in the managers ability to turn things round and ensure that Saturday doesn't happen again.

It's expected Warnock will name an unchanged side but hopefully he won't be tempted to be overly cautious and exile Victor Moses out onto the wing again. This is what happened on Saturday and look at the result; we need to be brave and take the game to a Reading side who are decidedly brittle at home.

The Royals' danger man will surely be Gregorz Rasiak who has a nasty habit of scoring against us and is dangerous aerially. There's also some old faces in the opposition camp tonight with Jobi McAnuff likely to start on the right wing (cue boos from Palace) and legend and former captain Dean Austin in the dugout after being named as Brendan Rodgers's assistant in the summer.


On a side-note, congratulations to Clint Hill who is in line to make his 100th appearance for the club tonight.

Good luck to the boys tonight and let's hope we can get back on track.

Here's hoping!

Monday 7 December 2009

Ambrose named player of the Month

Darren Ambrose has scooped the prestigious Coca-Cola Championship Player of the Month award for November after scoring in all four of last months games.















The Midfield maestro fought off stiff competition for Kevin Nolan, Darius Henderson and Simon Cox for the award.

Unfortunately it seems to have had the same effect as the Manager of the Month curse as the defeat against Doncaster on Saturday saw the breaking of Ambrose's run of eight goals in eight consecutive games.

Nonetheless it is an honour and a fitting reward for a player that can surely be regarded as the signing of the season.

Let's hope his he can continue this form into the busy Christmas period.

Here's Hoping!

A little Premiership praise from a City fan

After attending the Carling Cup 2nd round tie at Selhurst Park, Manchester City fan Christopher Wildgoose was left surprised by the quality of football that we offered.

So much so that he has given his views from what he saw that night:

Many people have criticised Palace for playing long ball, rather than beautiful football and, although some long ball was on display, it was great to see the effects of Victor Moses bursting down the wing and causing the Manchester City defence problems.

It was a game that Palace deserved to win, and had it not been for a few dodgy refereeing decisions they may well have gone on to cause the shock of the round.

Darren Ambrose was one of the best players on the pitch that night, and it was clear to see that he was going to be vital in the Eagles' promotion push this year. He came very close to scoring a sensational goal in the first-half and pulled the strings as Palace piled on the pressure and it looked ever more likely that a breakthrough was imminent.

If Palace play as well as they did that night then I have every confidence that they can go on to at least snatch a play-off place at the end of the season. The performance against Watford was fantastic as they stamped their authority over a team who is also capable of challenging for a top-six finish come May.

What I think Palace are lacking is the clinical striker. West Brom have one in Luke Moore and Shola Ameobi is rampant at St. James' Park. This is what separates the very best from the teams on the borderline of reaching their full potential.

I can not see Palace going into administration. The fan base is fantastic, and it was clear to see when I was sat with my City faithful just how much you got behind the team. With the support and the current form I have confidence in saying that Palace will be a Premier League team very soon.

Sunday 6 December 2009

Palace 0-3 Doncaster Rovers

So after having two full days to calm down I feel I am finally able to reflect on the game fairly and without any snap judgements. For instance I no longer have the urge to have every Palace player who played apart in Saturdays defeat put up against a wall and shot, which is probably good news for Simon Jordan as he has precious few assets as it is.

After going through the highlights again numerous times you can see we just didn’t get the rub of the green like we did last week against Watford and a keen Palace observer could see it wasn’t going to be from a very early stage. Last week we had two chances early on and scored them both, this week we had those same two chances but Neil Danns and the newly crowned player of the month Darren Ambrose inexplicably managed to miss both chances with the goal gaping on both occasions.

If we had gone 2-0 up we would have cruised to victory, as it was, a potent mix of lacksadaisical defending and ruthless finishing left us 1-0 down just before half-time. A big performance was needed after the break and just as we looked really fired up Donny hit us with a sucker punch on the break and the player’s collective heads dropped. The final twenty or so minutes must have been torture for those in the ground as James Hayter smashed home their third of the afternoon but the score line flattered them. Julian Speroni had nothing to do for the whole ninety minutes except pick the ball out of the net so as Mr Warnock say’s we will just have to “Take this one on the chin” and remember the performance last week and all the good things that have taken us to within striking distance of the play-offs.

Even opposing manager Sean O'Driscoll admitted that his side rode their luck on the way to victory: "I thought we were excellent. Palace are a difficult team to defend against and we took our chances well. In this division you need a little bit of luck and we took it."


Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was it destroyed in a day, so fans will have to keep some perspective (including me) when the lads have a stinker, take it on the chin and just accept that that is what Supporting Palace means. Even if we are less Rome more and more Pompeii at the moment with our finances.

I wouldn’t bet against a good result against Reading on Tuesday and a much improved performance, it’s a certainty Warnock won’t allow a repeat Saturday.

Here’s Hoping!

Thursday 3 December 2009

Help the club and 'Pass it on'









Show your support for the team by helping the club in its 'Pass it on' campaign that it hopes can help to sell out our christmas fixtures. Join the Facebook group and Pass on the brilliant new ticket offers that have jus been released based on meetings between the club and fans.