Saturday 8.45am. First game of the new season. I’m standing on dirty Sixth Street in downtown Austin. Waiting for the doors to open to the Austin Eagles’ new stomping ground B.D. Riley’s. Alone. Wondering if I had just arranged for an entire bar to open just for me to watch Palace play Fulham. In the distance I see a person walking purposefully toward me in red and blue. Barcelona fan? Nope, nope, that’s Palace. He gets closer, arm in arm with a lady. I don’t recognize them. As soon as they are in loud shouting range I introduce myself and wonder how the hell they know to come here. “It’s all over Reddit and Twitter”, says Nick. Odd, I think to myself, considering I don’t actually know what Reddit is. A huge smile widens across my face as more Austin Eagles saunter eaglely toward me. Some of them familiar and some foreign. As I stand in wonder, the age-old wooden doors swing open behind me and the welcoming smells and sounds of an Irish bar with footy on the TV beckon us in. We tip toe excitedly inside, surveying our new haunt and deciding which stool we shall call our own for the next nine months. We are home!

It was an odd home though. Odd because it was ours. We weren’t sharing it with anyone. We weren’t stuck in a corner huddling around a tiny TV, sometimes without sound, surrounded by hoards of glory supporting Scousers or Mancs. We were the only fan club in there. Granted there were a couple of Chelsea and, impressively, one Stoke shirt, but they were the minority now. We were in charge here. The main TV is playing Palace as our West London foes are screened way in the back. Oh how delightful it was. At one point there were as many as 30 of us cheering our boys. I never thought I would see the day. What a proud Papa Eagle I was. And to think that only four months ago I thought the Austin Eagles may disband with our old home Fado shutting it’s doors for good.

Oh yeah and did I forget to say that we actually won the game too.

First game. Three points. Solid professional performance against the spirited newcomers who spent over $100 million. That felt odd too. Is this the shape of things to come?

Liverpool next week. Time to knock them off their perch methinks.

Big shout out to Jon and Rod for bringing the Austin Eagles into the social media age. And also to everyone who came down making it a fantastic day.

Also to the management team of B.D. Riley’s for having faith in our little club and giving us our own nest.

And lastly, we are officially better than Man City.