After 70 minutes I reckon we're all thinking, maybe, just slightly, we've got this Rodgers guy wrong. Maybe he is turning things round a little bit.
That first 70 still wasn't perfect by any means. It showed how very important it is under BR to get the first goal because, luckily, until that point Palace matched us for ineptitude and ineffectiveness. Had the goal gone against us I reckon it would've been Reading and Sheffield United all over again.
But DeMerit volleyed in a corner and suddenly we looked the better side. It was Palace's heads who dropped and we 'pushed on in' as BR would call it to score a fantastic second goal. Although Cork scored it and Rasiak and McAnuff did the majority of the work the assist should really go to Will Hoskins for having the desire to win a ball he never looked likely to and then turning his man again before releasing Rasiak. If only there was a bit more of his energy in the team.
At half time clearly Colin had given his side a right rollocking for they came out looking possessed and duly scored from a free kick following a foul by DeMerit. Don't let the fact Jay scored kid you that he had a good game. Yet again he made too many mistakes and was culpable for at least two, if not three of the goals we conceded. How he is still given the captain's armband when his is the last example any of the rest of them should follow is beyond me. Although to be fair who would get the armband? I wonder if the imminent arrival of Mike Williamson will mean we'll find out against Burnley.
Surprinsingly we didn't then capitulate but instead, rather wonderfully, scored another two. Will Hoskins flicked in a corner that was made even more entertaining by the moronic Palace fans who invaded the pitch and were sythed down by several stewards. Could we arrange for this to happen every week, maybe to replace Harry's 50/50 draw at half time because it was much much more interesting?
The fourth was as good as the second. We broke devastingly quickly, Rasiak cleverly held the ball up just outside the area and calmly fired it into the top left corner. Delirium followed in the Upper Rous. When was the last time we'd scored 4? How wonderful to do it against a Colin side. We'd all be leaving the ground with a very wide grin on our faces.
Except actually we wouldn't.
Brendan's substitution policy confused me last week when, at 2-0 down, he didn't bother to bring on Priskin. If I thought that was bad, this week he surpassed himself and completely shattered any thoughts that maybe he was just beginning to get the hang of this Championship manager lark.
For a start he didn't include a striker amongst the 7 subs! He took off both Hoskins and Rasiak and put a clearly tired (and never exactly fast) McAnuff up front. As we do when being defensive under BR we played far far too deep. The last 20 minutes looked like a training session of 10 attackers against 11 defenders and even Palace keeper Speroni decided it was safe to abandon his goal and take any free kick won by Palace in their own half.
All season our problem has been that we can't defend and today proved that even with the entire team helping out we can't. We were so so lucky that Palace had, what appeared to be, a perfectly good goal disallowed. Had it been given I reckon the best we would've escaped with was a replay back at Selhurst. By the time they scored a legitimate goal they'd left the comeback a bit too late. But there was still time for them to get a third, albeit, almost right on full time. Had BR made the substitutions any earlier, or had the ref allowed more than 5 minutes of injury time we would've drawn, if not lost.
Tactically it was completely wrong. I've no doubt had Priskin and Smith been on the bench and come on instead of O'Toole and Bridcutt we would've seen out the game without conceding any more and maybe have even made it 5. If Chelsea Reserves were 4-1 up with 20 minutes left I'm sure they'd have the silky skills to shut up shop and play an extremely boring game of keep ball. Until BR realises that we are NOT Chelsea we're still in very serious danger of going down.
So, despite our manager, we find ourselves in the 5th round of the cup. Shame yesterday wasn't the league match against Palace because we need the points and I reckon they'll come and stuff us in a month's time. As I walked out of the ground Richard Short was announcing Sheffield United's win over Charlton. I thought it wouldn't surprise me at all if we get another visit from Darius, Webber and co come mid February.
