Save Our Club

Desperate times need desperate measures.

Please sign the petition below to seek the Prime Minister's intervention to stop Crystal Palace football club from falling into the hands of the faceless financial businessmen whose only interest is monetary gain.

The Football Association do not seem to be helping this club - a club which has a long and proud history - that has served its community well for so many years. Ironically, Crystal Palace was just one of the London teams which contributed to the formation of The FA.

CPFC have not only enthused and encouraged youngsters in south east London through the excellent work of its respected youth academy, which has recently produced players like John Bostock and Victor Moses. This work has also had an effect internationally with the achievements at Crystal Palace Baltimore in the USA.

Our club needs your help. Whether you're a fan of the game or not, whichever team you may support, signing this petition is a demonstration against corporate greed whose only vested interest is the fatness of its wallet with little or no regard for the thousands of fans who will be utterly distraught if this club goes into liquidation.

Time is in short supply; thanks for reading this and please sign the petition below ASAP. In addition, please feel free to circulate this message via all means possible.

Initial Impressions # 4: Scunthorpe & The Stranglers

Scunny. What's there to say about Scunny?

Erm...

Well...

Shall we just move on to the match?

Glanford Park ratings:

Stadium - corrugated iron shack on breeze blocks

Security - friendly but confused stewards

Food - hot Vimto @ 50 pence a go

Transport - car parking close by. I left shortly after the opposition equalised in the eighty fourth minute, thereby missing Danns's winning goal in extra time. Bugger.

(Scunthorpe United 1 - C Palace 2. Attendance: 5,698). More pictures here.

Warnock Confused

Today, Neil Warnock takes "his boys" for an away fixture at Bramall Lane.

Small wonder he looks confused, eh readers? Not to worry though, whatever the result, win, lose or draw, Neil and the lads can relax on the long coach trip home by listening to DEPCAST 10, a brand new podcast that's been made in the location of Croydon. You too can listen in by CLICKING HERE.

UPDATE - The Damned at Brighton were fucking great. The venue was just right for them too (size-wise) and they managed to make the improv section in new song "Dark Asteroid" more interesting. Here are Froggy's pictures from that night. Cheers, Froggy. 

The set list was as follows: There'll Come A Day, Neat Neat Neat, Under The Wheels, Fan Club, Dr Woofenstein, Democracy, Under The Floor Again, Love Song, Second Time Around, Shallow Diamonds, Alone Again Or, Danger To Yourself, Curtain Call, New Rose, Dark Asteroid - encore - Sanity Clause (including messed up start, most amusing), Stretcher Case, Ignite, Smash It Up & after half the crowd had left, Happy Talk. 

In the meantime, I hope you all have a spiffing Chrimbo and a jolly reasonable New Year. As me old mate Stac used to say: "mind the road..."

All Souped Up

God I had a weird dream last night. Very fucking weird. I dreamt that Crystal Palace FC was playing in the Champions' League and that I was about to watch the match live on the telly, when I remembered that I had to go to work. Stranger still, was the fact that I was working in an office that overlooked Selhurst Park (Palace's ground) and my desk was next to Howesy's. I can't remember who Palace's opponents were, but it wasn't Brentford FC. Or Hull. It may have been Arsenal though, as I have a faint recollection that Arsene Wenger was sniffing around the place.
So, Howesy and I are sitting at our desks which are positioned right next to the office balcony. We're pretending to get on with some sort of paperwork whilst really waiting for the sporting entertainment to start, when suddenly Neil Warnock walks on stage and announces the pre-match entertainment gig.

"Ladies and Gentlemen", says our Neil. "I'd like you all to give a very warm welcome for today's warm-up act" (see, this is how weird this dream was; a bloody warm-up act at a Champions' league game?!?).

"Put your hands together for...Paul McCartney and the Brian Moore Band".
McCartney swaggers onto the stage in his own inimitable way doing all the thumbs-up-all-right-our-kid malarkey, closely followed by four identical Brian Moores weilding custom Brian Moore guitars. The Brians were dishing out free Gillingham FC fanzines which were called "Brian Moore's Head Looks Uncannily Like The London Planetarium" (which is an actual fanzine that I've encountered in real life). I can't remember what songs they played, but they were alright for an old band.

They finished the set and Howesy and I joined McCartney on stage for an expresso as all the roadies rushed around us, packing up all the gear in time for kick-off.
"Ahright lads, whadya reckon o' the gig?" asked Paul.
"You should start using a Mellotron again. Oasis have nicked your sound" I said.
"Who the fuck are Oasis?"
"Exactly."

Noodle bars - cheap health food or just cheap food? Every now and then I get the urge to stick my nose into a large bowl of fish stock flavoured soup, which also contains cabbage, squid, fish balls, and erm, lots of other unidentified stuff (supposedly edible) that is covered in black pepper. It tastes great, it really does but the only decent noodle bar round here that serves it is in Beckenham. Bit of a trek really, so this was conjoured up really quickly the other night in the kitchen. Perhaps it was some fermented ingredient in that brew which triggered the weird dream process.