Since it's Movember.....

CCC Team of the Week - Crystal Palace

Well, we seem to be on a roll at the moment (bound to put the mockers on it, although we’ve got Dave’s Leeds this weekend!)

Crystal Palace was formed in 1905 by workers at The Crystal Palace which was built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.

They have had a few homes, but moved to their current purpose built stadium – Selhurst Park in 1924, based in South Norwood.

The clubs most successful period started in 1988/89 season when they finished third in the Second Division and were promoted to the First Division (this was when I was slightly more interested so I remember it!). We reached the 1990 FA Cup Final but lost in the replay to Manchester United although we finished third in the First Division in 1990/91 season. We were a founding member of the FA Premier League in 1992/93 but were relegated that season. Since then we have been up and down like a yoyo, although the most recent relegation was in the 2004/5 season – maybe we will make it back up there this year.

When the club was formed we played in a Claret and Blue kit which was donated by Aston Villa. In 1973 when Malcolm Alison became the manager he changed the colours to red and blue in aid of trying to modernise the clubs look, he also changed the club crest and nickname to The Eagles.

They have had a few different crests and I even had the 1987-1994 badge on my bedroom door and as proof I still have it:

We are doing well so far this season with our current top striker, Glenn Murray scoring 15 goals since the season started. Although I would imagine he has a way to go to beat Peter Simpson who scored 153 goals between 1930-36.

Crystal Palace’s main rival is Brighton & Hove Albion. The rivalry developed in 1974 (before Amy was born and the year I was born) when Palace were relegated to the Third Division. Our other, more local rivals are Millwall and Charlton Athletic.

FA Cup Sweepstake draw has taken place...

Here it is the FA Cup draw which took place in the Jack Fairman tonight.
Highlights:
Margs V her brother - MK Dons V Wimbledon (I have the wrong one!)
Keith with the reds - the mighty Alfreton - did we ever work out which league they were in?
Pete L picking out Gillian's team which meant he didn't get an easy ride through.
Last person drawn out - Kelly - hard luck Dave.

Friday 30th November 2012
Bradford		v	Brentford	Christine
Saturday 1st December 2012
Harrogate Town	Dave B	v	Hastings Utd	Kelly
Lincoln City	Kate	v	Mansfield
Accrington Stanley	Pete L	v	Oxford Utd	Gillian
Barrow	Chris S	v	Macclesfield	Dave H
Bury		v	Southend	Ted L
Carlisle	Amy	v	Bournemouth	Dan
Coventry		v	Morecambe	Jane
Crawley	Mick	v	Chelmsford	Jan F
Crewe		v	Burton Albion	Scott
Fleetwood		v	Aldershot	Maddie
Luton		v	Dorchester
Oldham	James L	v	Doncaster	Jon
Preston		v	Gillingham
Rotherham	Kev	v	Notts County	Lyn
Sheff Utd	Darren	v	Port Vale
Tranmere		v	Chesterfield
Sunday 2nd December 2012		v
MK Dons	Margs	v	Wimbledon	Andy West
Alfreton	Keith	v	Leyton Orient	Anna
Monday 3rd December 2012		v
Cheltenham	Pete B	v	Hereford

So at least 9 people will be out after round 2 and a maximum of 14 can stay in. :-(

Good luck all (except Wimbledon) and feel free to post your enthusiasm for your team on the blog.

Prize money
£2 each for the losing semi-finalists - after all they made it to Wembley. (its gone up!)
£5 for the losing finalist - they got to Wembley twice
£19 for the winner and the glory of course.

this weekend's fixtures

Saturday's fixtures

Barnsley	v	Keith
Shirley	v	Millwall
Lyn	v	Scott
Dan	v	Margs
Jane	v	Andy
Amy	v	Anna
Jan	v	Peterborough

Colin	v	Kelly
Ted	v	Pete
Sue	v	Mick
Jim	v	Chris

and as Amy so rightly said in her excellent update, Match of the Day

Dave

v

Paula

as Dave has had a very bad run of form and Paula is top of our league.....

CCC updated table

No changes to the bottom 3 teams. Although Kelly's Bristol remain at the bottom, 1 point from a draw reduces her share of the total bill.

					Pence in
Team	Points	Who	Goal diff		the pound
Crystal Palace	36	Paula	13		0.0
Cardiff	34	Keith	11		0.1
Middlesborough	32	Colin	7		0.4
Hull	31	Amy	4		0.6
Leicester	30	Pete	13		0.8
Blackburn	28	Shirley	6		1.5
Brighton	27	Dan	9		1.9
Huddersfield	27	Andy	0		1.9
Nottm Forest	26	Mick	4		2.4
Watford	26	Scott	3		2.4
Blackpool	23	Lyn	3		4.3
Derby	23	Jim	1		4.3
Charlton	23	Jane	0		4.3
Burnley	23	Anna	-2		4.3
Wolves	22	Sue	0		5.2
Bolton	21	Margs	-2		6.2
Leeds United	20	Dave	-6		7.2
Birmingham	20	Chris	-6		7.2
Sheff Wed	15	Ted	-9		13.0
Ipswich	13	Jan	-25		15.4
Bristol City	12	Kelly	-9		16.7

Match Reports

Paula’s Palace retained their top spot with a 3-0 win over Derby. Murray scored after 14mins, the second coming from Moritz and the last Murray again finished off a skilful run to see that Jon didn’t get a look in. In a top flight battle between Cardiff and Middlesbrough Keith was looking for his 9^th home win of the season. Connolly provided just that, nodding in a Whitingham corner after 19mins. Colin continued to press, hitting the woodwork through Ledesma and a long distance smash by Leadbitter that required a top save from Cardiff’s Marshall. Keith showed resilience and despite a number of injuries, overtook Colin in the CCC. Birmingham v Hull saw the Tigers manager return to his former club.  Amy showed Chris what he’s missing when Aluko had fired home two goals after just 26mins, a player who went unnoticed at Birmingham – making no league appearances.  Chester then turned Aluko’s corner in making it 3. Morrison (on loan from West Ham) mixed things up just before half time, with a start of a comeback. This seemed to have woken Chris’s team up, as King scored another just 11 seconds into the second half. Luckily for Amy, the game finished 2-3, securing their 4^th place in the table.  

Team of the week is starting to look a little cursed, with all 4 of the last teams enduring losses. Jan’s tractor boys proved that when Pete’s Leicester ironically put 6 in the back of the net (see Jan’s random facts)! Loan West Ham keeper Henderson brought down Nugent, gifting the star striker with a penalty. Nugent tapped in a second followed by Dyer, Knockaert, Waghorn and substitute Futacs all getting on the scoreboard. It seems Pete’s side were writing poetry at the King Power Stadium (on an unrelated note, Pete’s assistant manager’s surname is Shakespeare! Who knew…)

Blackburn scored against Peterborough after only 3 minutes into the game, with the second and third and fourth coming from Rhodes. Tomlin scored a screamer for Peterborough which was only celebrated as a consolation. It was an easy game for Shirley, but it should have been more, with Rhodes narrowly missing out on increasing his hat-trick and both Olsson and Nuno Gomes hitting woodwork. Dan’s Brighton won 2-1 at Andy’s Galphram Stadium to go on level points with the Terriers. Buckley scored both the goals and Brighton held on until Church got one back on 90mins. Mick’s visit to Ted saw a match that was riddled with missed chances.  Eventually, with 16mins to go an own goal from Llera saw Forest take the lead and the game. Scott’s Watford held a home win against travelling Sue. Chalabah took the lead, which enticed a response from Wolves through Sako. But ultimately, with the extra man on the pitch Deeney grabbed the winner for Watford.  Bristol v Blackpool saw late drama in the game. Kelly’s Bristol were given a penalty after 80mins and when Davies cooled slotted home, it gave the home team a rare glimpse at a win after seven successive defeats.  However Bristol threw this away also handing Blackpool penalty at 90+2. Ince stepped up to finish, full time 1-1. Burnley v Charlton saw Jane take her third successive win. When Jackson’s penalty was saved it wasn’t looking to be the Addicks day however when Anna was reduced to 10 men it took its toll and Charlton’s persistence paid off when Haynes headed it into the back of the net. It was a clean sweep for the Sheppards this week!  The Bolton Barnsley game was a ‘Davies’ affair; Margs took the lead through an technical finish after Kevin Davies controlled Chris Eagles cross and found the bottom corner. However Barnsley grabbed an equaliser after 65mins through Craig Davies to take a point. Both had the opportunity to take three points during a thrilling finale but neither could find the net (did Jan take them?)

The match of the day saw Dave take on Millwall at The Den earlier today.  Leeds were (as promised) involved in more bookings when they were reduced to 10 men after Luke Varney elbowed Adam Smith. Despite few chances created by Leeds, they managed to hold on, until Wood met Shane Lowry’s cross to head home the winner only minutes from the end.  This sees Dave’s beloved go nine games with only one win, can he turn that around next week and beat top of the table Palace?

CCC - Team of the Week – Ipswich Town

The club was founded as an amateur side in 1878 and were known as Ipswich A.F.C. until 1888 when they merged with Ipswich Rugby Club to form Ipswich Town Football Club.  In their amateur status they won a number of regional competitions and the Suffolk Amateur League in the 1921-22, 1929-30, 1932-33 and 1933-34 before turning professional and joining the Southern League in 1936, which they one in their first season (might be best if we go back there the way things are going :-/!!).  The club endured mixed fortunes until the arrival of Alf Ramsey (he of England manager fame) in August 1955, who took them to the top level of English football in 1961 and the league title in 1962.  Sir Alfs departure in 1963 to manage England was the start of a period of decline in fortunes.  Bobby Robson arrived in 1969 and led Ipswich to two major trophies (1978 FA Cup and 1981 UEFA Cup) and several seasons in top flight European football.  At their peak Ipswich boasted internationals introducing the Dutch pair Arnold Mühren and Frans Thijssen to add flair to a team that featured British internationals including John Wark, Terry Butcher and Paul Mariner, and beat Man Utd 6-0 (we’ll ignore the Premiership record defeat, 9–0, at Man Utd).  George Burley led the club to 3 consecutive promotion playoffs (defeated in all), finally returned to the Premiership in 2000 after coming from behind to beat Barnsley 4–2 in the last Division One playoff final at Wembley (watched in Ringwood pub with Leeds and Portsmouth).  Ipswich finished fifth place in their 1^st season —being pipped by Liverpool on the last day of the season for a place in the Champions League. Consolation was a UEFA Cup place and FA Premier League Manager of the Year Award for Burley

 

Some random facts

·         Ipswich became one of the first clubs to implement the use of goal nets, in 1890….and their still getting plenty of use!!

·         Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson were both Ipswich’s and England’s most successful managers

·         The playing surface at Portman Road is highly regarded and has been voted best pitch in the league on a number of occasions…..now if only we, and not most of the opposition, could take advantage of that this season.

·         Ipswich's record home attendance is 38,010 for a 6th round FA Cup match Vs Leeds on 8 March 1975.

·         A number of Ipswich players featured alongside Sylvester Stallone and Pelé in the 1981 prisoner of war film Escape to Victory, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Robin Turner, Laurie Sivell and Kevin O'Callaghan. Other Ipswich Town players stood in for actors in the football scenes—Kevin Beattie for Michael Caine, and Paul Cooper for Sylvester Stallone.

·         In theses days of frequent manager sackings Ipswich left it as late as 1990 before John Duncan became their first sacking….recent years have redressed that balance!!!

·         The nickname ‘The Tractor Boys’ - acquired during their 1st appearance in the Premier League because of the agricultural links to the area. When they played Birmingham City, the opposition fans sang “no noise from the Tractor Boys” during a routine win, and soon their own supporters began using the name to refer to themselves as they jovially highlighted the club’s lack of glamour compared to their more illustrious opponents.