Frankly, I am a little nervous to think of what is next for us.
Last weekend we finally beat our arch nemeses Southampton, a team we have failed to conquer in our last 14 league meetings with them. We are now sixth in the league and pundits are calling us "the most exciting team in the Premier League". This win was crucial for the mental state of our players. If we can beat Southampton, we can beat anyone.
But any true Palace fan will still secretly fear the possible disaster lurking just around the corner. It was only a few years ago that our team were seconds from liquidation. And it was fans like you and me that rescued them from collapse. As a way to keep our feet grounded, I shall briefly recount this emotional story.
The team had hit a poor run of form during the 2009/10 season. Along with this, our self-made millionaire owner Simon Jordan was going broke. Money was flooding out of the club's coffers from unfortunate financial decisions and a plummeting attendance at games. Jordan was forced to put Crystal Palace FC into administration and hand over ownership to Lloyds Bank. A few potential buyers flirted with the idea of purchasing the club including P Diddy because he liked the name but they all eventually got cold feet. Time was running out to save the team. The final day approached and if a buyer wasn't found, a team with over a hundred years of history would have to be dissolved.
June 1st 2010. The day of reckoning. I remember waking up that morning unable to open my presents, for indeed it was my 34th birthday. All I could think about was the future of my team. I turned on the TV to find the news showing a sea of red and blue shirted chavs singing and stomping their way through the London streets demanding for someone to save them. They descended on the Lloyds Bank building and for the next four hours shouted up at the window of banking administrator Brendan Guilfoyle to sell to any buyer no matter the price. Media sources reported that the usually fiscally focused financier was so stunned by this outburst of emotion that he called the most interested party and offered them the club for whatever price they wanted. The CPFC2010 consortium made up of four wealthy and devout Palace fans bought the club and began a task that looked to many to be impossible.
League rules state that any team going into administration automatically gets ten points stripped from their season's tally. This caused us to plummet from our safe mid table position in the second division to the relegation zone. Even with our new owners, dropping into the third division would have been cataclysmic for the team. On the very last game of that season, we played Sheffield Wednesday (yes, that is the name of a team) and a loss would see us relegated to the division below. We were 2-1 up until three minutes from time when they equalized. That last three minutes were the longest of my life, not including of course the time I went to see a live American Football game. We hung on for dear life with our opponents being sent down to the depressing depths of third division football.
Five years on and look at us now.
This weekend's game sees us tackle in-form Stoke City. Myself and, as I am told, many other Austin Eagles will be at Fado once more at 9am Saturday 19th to see what will happen. However keep an eye on that corner. You never know what's lurking behind it.
