SPORTS NEWS

Football
FA Cup Fourth Round Replay
Selhurst Park

Crystal Palace 1 – 2 Preston North End

TUPNews took in some of the magic of the FA Cup this past Tuesday, watching Preston North End defeat Crystal Palace at London’s Selhurst Park.

The train from East Dulwich to Norwood Junction wasn’t exactly the storied Football Specials of old – amongst rows of sleepy suits, my companion and I looked out of place with our meat pies, chips and tins. Sure enough, we found after pushing through the strangely narrow turnstiles that the stadium was only a quarter full – the third lowest attendance of the season, we would later learn. The tannoy announcer chirped up somewhat optimistically that “it’s a small crowd, and small crowds always produce the best atmosphere.” This didn’t really prove to be the case, but Selhurst Park is a pleasant ground nonetheless.

Luckily we were seated with the Preston fans, who were in fine voice. It was strange, but fantastic, to be suddenly surrounded by Northern accents and Lancastrian wit for two hours. A weird kind of tourism that I totally endorse.

Both teams wore their home strip: lily-white for Preston, blue and red stripes for Palace. But for the quality of the football, the squinting spectator could imagine he was watching Real Madrid versus Barcelona.

Palace generally looked like a half a Premiership team, while Preston looked like a solid Championship team, which I suppose is what both are. Palace striker Andy Johnson looked yesterday’s man. He trotted out his signature move of diving in the box a few times, but drew no penalties, only chants of “Fuck off Johnson!” from the away stand. Mostly, he ran sideways across the pitch very quickly, only to find nothing there. Palace scored first but ultimately succumbed to two goals from former QPR striker Danny Dichio, the first before the break and the second within minutes of the final whistle, sending the Preston fans giddy with both the excitement of victory and the total relief that the evening fixture hadn’t gone to penalties.

My Preston-supporting companion told me an interesting Preston-related fact. Preston North End are one of only two teams in the League – the other being Reading – who, through some form of royal patronage, are entitled to wear their white strip for any match. For courtesy and commerce Preston does have an away strip, but they could in theory show up for a fixture at, say, White Hart Lane and demand that Tottenham play in their away colours.