susie b

I shall be there. hopefully sporting a tan and a look of contentment after spending the previous day on the beach and the Friday itself at the Lowestoft airshow!  Should be a good couple of days, weather permitting!

Bless you Kathy for your offer.  That would be great when you want to have a go!  The undies drawer assignment is yours then!  I''ll stick to the kitchen cupboards investigation!!!  To be honest I never get fed up with writing, it''s just hard to find the time some weeks when I''m working...but as I have seven weeks off now to make beach trips and do more undercover work (!) I probably don''t have much excuse. Thanks Gorleston Jim too.  Nice to be back - it really is!

Thanks guys for your kind words.  I feel like I''ve been through the mill in the past few weeks but am thankfully ok now.  Can''t wait for the new season to get started as I shall truly just be grateful to be a part of it all once again.  Any suggestions for topics you''d like to read about in the column would be gratefully received, but I draw the line at doing undercover work investigating players'' underwear drawers!!!

AJ - you must not start these dreadful rumours again!  It is well known that Carl Cort only shops at Asda.  To do anything else would be treason!!!

No worries Wiz...I shall be keeping that info to myself for everyone''s sake but mostly yours, until the first day of the season when some poor unsuspecting person parks his bottom on seat no...row...in the City Stand.  (Yes, I''m the one who makes the noise from that general direction, drawing hoots of derision and strange looks from many a punter, but care I do not!!!!) Gazza - enjoy your new found freedom without Meeky and the children to rein you in!  I guess they''ll be near me next season then.  Perhaps I''d better behave! 

I know there will be a seat next to me going spare next season because the lovely old gentleman who has occupied it for years suffered two bad falls down the concrete steps after the two post-Christmas games, and he''s decided he''s too frail to come to games any more.  I shall really miss his charm and his mints (!!!) and the hugs when we score, but it will be interesting to see who is in the seat next season.  If it''s you, be prepared for a crazed blonde nutter who never stops shouting/singing and who is likely to grab you for wild celebrations from time-to-time!!! Hope you''re on the mend now Wiz.  I have had a health scare myself recently so I can empathise a bit with what you''re going through. 

Shouldn''t this thread title be: Leon to Charlton''s for a slap up meal?!!!!!

Mine was ''we''ve got a supercook, you''ve got a Russian crook!'' against, who else, but Chelsea!  That was a really good memory. 

ZLF - thanks for remembering my somewhat feeble attempts to design a new away kit recently. I think the new home one has some decent design features, but I would not have shaped that swathe of green around the neck in quite the same way.  The asymmetry of it doesn''t look quite right.  That said, the rest of it is basically ok, I think...and the socks are really good.  (Could be Deano''s legs though!)  Might have to get a pair of those to wear this time around- socks I mean, not legs like Deano!!!

It seems as if the Binners are uncertain about trying to make Unsworth''s deal permanent for next season, perhaps because they don''t have the money to do so long-term if they remain in the Fizzy League.  Don''t think we need to be worrying about them having enough shirt buttons to buy any of our players in that case, well not any of the ones that we must seek to keep.  Breathe easy Francesco and listen to the wise words of Roger Munby yesterday.  Robert Chase he is not - thank goodness!!!

My nephew was the same until he reached the grand old age of six and decided that there was more fun to be had on his doorstep and more pride to be gained by laughing in the face of adversity...and that was five years ago!  He''s never wobbled since!!!  Keep working on him and you will succeed.  All the best.

Thanks westoncanary.  I''ve never really been away, but have been too busy to post much lately, apart from the odd brief sentence (nothing new there then!)  Hope you still have your souvenir papers tucked away in a safe place for your ancestors to read and marvel over in years to decades to come - although I hope there''ll be more to add to your collection in the near future!

I know you are joking, but Derby have pretty massive debts so I think Ipswich is more likely!

Oh my...I wasn''t the only one thinking that then?!  And there''s the U21 connection as well, so maybe there''s hope of Bents being here next season and I won''t have to chain myself to his car in the car park at Colney!!!  As for Deano, he will be here or there will be an awful mess to clear up in the boardroom...we will all see to that!

That''s why I had my tongue firmly planted in my cheek as I wrote it! Anyway, West Brom play Pompey and if Saints'' relegation depends on the former winning that one then it''ll be game over...if it''s even still on for us by then.

And the luck on our run in last year was...?  I suppose you''re going to say the assist from Neale Barry against Reading, but that ball still had to be converted and it took a great deal of skill and some quick thinking to do it!  (Can''t believe I''ve just written a testimonial for Mullers there, and for free!!!)  Any other luck you can think of we''d be interested to be reminded of as in our last ten games we picked up 24 points, if my memory serves me right, and the Reading game was just one of those not all ten!!!  Anyway, I''m not so sure you will fail to pick up anything this week just as much as I''m not sure we''ll pick up one let alone two wins.  Good though that you (and your fellow Baggies on your Rivals site) seem to think that it''s all still to play for.  Beats mid-table obscurity doesn''t it?!!!!!!

Most of your points are sound Luke, but I just wanted to say that if you look at your Holmesdale site you will see an equally mixed bag of opinions from your own fans about the ''Easy'' chant (which you started after going 1-0 up) - both sides looking silly on that one then -, about AJ''s credibility (a veritable row going on about that one with opinions ranging from ''carry on'' to ''he''s a disgrace'') - both sides reflecting similarly then but with rather more anger at this end as you might expect -, and about the performance of the ref with views ranging from ''if you look again he got the decisions right apart from the actual one he gave which never was'' to ''a completely incompetent ******'' - again quite a bit of agreement from both sides, if perhaps for different reasons. Different people on both sides will see things differently always so my only advice is not to assume that everyone of yellow and green persuasion disagrees with your view, but then again not to assume that every Palace fan does either!  Not that you have assumed...I''m just assuming  you might have!!! I''m not getting into the AJ/England argument as he''s not had enough of a chance to perform at that level yet for me to comment, however I think it unlikely that when/if wearing the shirt he will play in quite the same way as he does for you - and you can read into that what you like.  In any case, I think we might have someone who could be wearing that shirt in the not-too-distant future and he was praised by the Sky commentatiors the previous weekend for not going down in the box when he could so easly have done so.  I think he will eventually turn out to be a better prospect for England..although you are perfectly entitled to disagree. I see you have Rob Styles again for your match on Wednesday.  A good or bad thing do you think?

I got my dad to do it yesterday and, stone the crows, even he came up with us surviving by one point...and he''s the biggest pessimist I know!!!  Doesn''t mean much though ''cos he hasn''t seen us play for something like ten years!!!

Not knocking Crouchy at all as I am definitely a fan and pleased for him that things are working out at Southampton - (hopefully not at our expense, ultimately) - but IMO Dean Ashton appears to be a more complete player already and will continue to improve, all being well.  That can only bode well for us wherever we are next season as the board would be outrageously daft to sell their most prized asset while his stock is rising with almost every passing minute - oh yes, and we need him!  Who could we replace him with at about or below the same price as he is currently worth?  Half of Darren Bent perhaps, but which half would you want?

If it goes to the wire...and it''s still a very big IF...then I will be beside myself on the last day, but perhaps foolishly comforted by the fact that Fulham really don''t like Palace very much - well, the fans seem to have a great dislike for each other so perhaps the players do too!  ("Sad, deluded straw-clutching mare", I hear you cry!!!)

You''re right - he sure did make a difference and I think the defence played with more confidence because they knew they had some teeth and muscle in front of them for a change.  I didn''t mind him giving away the free kicks on Saturday too much as they weren''t in particularly dangerous positions and they simply disrupted play so Manure didn''t build up too much rhythm in their attacks.  Interesting that Damo seemed a bit more like his old self than he has done of late.  Coincidence?  I don''t think so!

Details to be sent out to season ticket holders by the end of this month, I believe.  Hopefully it won''t be as awful as that mess that is to be the Binners kit for next season!!! Can''t be, can it?

Looks like something one of their kids did at nursery school!  No...on second thoughts that''s very insulting to small children!!!

Has anyone else noticed that Leon seems to be doing a great job in the ''helping Dean to settle in'' stakes as well?  Several times on Saturday he went over to have a chat and give him a quick pat on the back, which can only help them cement their partnership I would think.

I think if we all read the latest interview with Dean on the official site we will get our answer.  Good on him, but nothing less than I expected, I have to be honest.  (Read the last few paragraphs of this week''s Bird''s Eye View if you need confirmation of the faith I had in him being here next season).  Trouble is, I now expect the club to go all out to return at the first attempt if we go down, and anything less will be seen as a big failure.  The pressure will be really be on all of them, but especially Worthy!