1988/89 was possibly my favourite season as a Palace fan. I was 14 when the season started and Palace was one of the most important things in my life. Hell, it was THE most important thing in my life. I never missed a match, home or away. Though we'd travel to away games together, my Dad’s season ticket was in the main stand, a seat he'd held all his adult life, whilst I opted to be with my fellow Thornton Heath urchins at the front of the Whitehorse Lane end.

Football had basically taken over my life and the fact that we clinched promotion at the end of that campaign made my teenage years all the easier, having spent years taking abuse from London based Liverpool “fans” who tried in vain to make me ashamed of my choice of team. The home leg of the Blackburn play-off game remains my favourite ever game at Selhurst Park. But another game played that season was equally as memorable.

It was Easter Monday and unusually mild for the time of year. The sun shone brightly over Selhurst Park as we entered the Whitehorse end. We'd spent pre match in Crystals, thinking we were such big men getting served Fosters tops at the age of 15. It's not as if we looked older than we were, I think it was just a case of the bar staff not being bothered as we'd never once been asked our age in there. The usual stand offs you associate with a Palace Brighton game were taking place outside but we took little notice of them. We were far too busy getting drunk on slightly diluted weak Australian lager to care. But none of us were as drunk as referee Kelvin Morton appeared to be that day.

We'd met Morton a handful of times before in the league and he was always generous to us where penalties were concerned. I think he'd given us at least two the previous season but I couldn't tell you who they were against. So he arrived at Selhurst Park already with a reputation as somebody who points to the spot quite regularly. The game started with Mark Bright putting an easy chance over the crossbar in the first minute before Ian Wright scored one of the finest goals Selhurst Park has ever witnessed with an amazing volley from an acute angle some 20 minutes later. Then shortly after this, Mike Trusson, the kind of useless, lower division clogger one associates with Brighton and Hove Albion, received a straight red for a disgraceful challenge on Eagles winger Eddie McGoldrick.

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So, we've put one over the crossbar, scored a screamer and the scum have had a player sent off. And that's with barely half an hour on the clock. Too much action for one game? No chance. Trusson had barely reached the dressing room when veteran carthorse Larry May decided to give Mark Bright a mid air bear hug and Morton gave us that penalty we'd been anticipating since kick off, and Mark Bright made no mistake from the spot. Then we kicked off again. I was pretty satisfied that we'd seen everything the first half was going to offer and started to move towards the exit so I could go and have a cigarette without my dad seeing (he always made a habit of waving to me from the Main Stand before every match so he knew exactly where I stood).

As I was making my way to cover I heard the ref's whistle. “Fuck me! Another penalty?” Up steps Bright again but the Seaweed keeper saves it with his legs this time. So I start slowly making my way to the exit again, when almost immediately the ball is back in Brighton's area and it appears that one of the carthorses in the centre of the Brighton defence has poleaxed Ian Wright. Surely he's not going to give another penalty? Yep, Kelvin Morton points to the spot yet again. This time Wright steps up but his placed kick hits the post and the half time whistle goes shortly after, and I finally get to smoke my fag. 

The beginning of the second half suggested that Morton was trying to even things up. For reasons known only to him, Morton decided that Jeff Hopkins shielding the ball from Brighton's Kevin Bremner was worthy of a penalty and Alan Curbishley, who’s long associations with both Brighton and Charlton make him a somewhat disgraceful specimen of humanity, drilled his spot kick to the left of Perry Suckling, giving Brighton a lifeline that they scarcely deserved.

The Palace faithful had grown rather tired of spot kicks by the time the fifth penalty of the game was rewarded. A blatant handball in the Brighton area gave Morton little choice but to take this game to a farcical level and break a record in the process. The choice of John Pemberton as the next penalty taker seemed to be an obvious one. Pembo had come close to scoring several times that season with some absolute thunderbolts from outside the area so surely he could just blast it into the net like Andy Gray used to right? Nope. Pembo put his foot under the ball and blasted it out of the atmosphere. If anyone was wondering what that spherical object photographed in Mars recently was, it was probably the matchball from that game.

Then, towards the end of the game something even more farcical happened. Having been outplayed and outclassed for the entire game, that shitbag Curbishley nearly snatched a point but fired his shot straight at Perry Suckling minutes before the final whistle. Then the whistle blew and we left Selhurst Park bemused as to why we hadn't totally annihilated our rivals. But that had to wait another 13 years.

After this game midfielder David Madden, a recent addition to the side after injuries to Geoff Thomas and Glenn Pennyfather, took on the role of regular penalty taker and scored five out of five to get us promoted, so perhaps this needed to happen but I don't think we'll ever see a game like this again. Not in my lifetime. Though this being Palace, you can never rule out the absurd. I've often wondered if Kelvin Morton was a secret Palace fan given his generosity towards us where penalties are concerned. If anyone sees him at a game, please let me know.

Wilfried Zaha isn't a diver. We know this. Pundits know this. And yet the criticism keeps coming. Here's Josh Esaw making a case for Palace's Boy Wonder.

It seems Selhurst Park is still the place where big teams dreams come grinding to a sudden halt. It was Pep Guardiola’s dazzling Manchester City who learnt the hard way how frustrating a trip to SE25 can be, when the cauldron of noise erupts and the Palace faithful bind together in a potion of confident resilience.

The Catalan cut a stylish yet agitated figure in the opposition dug out as a much-altered Palace side, learnt the lessons of Arsenal and delivered a simple yet effective midfield strategy that pressed higher, quicker and more cohesively in stopping the best team in Europe getting into any kind of rhythm. It was not the finest performance from the runaway league leaders, but much credit should have gone to the Eagles in the performance they produced, especially with so many games in such a short space of time.

However much of the headlines after the game begun to revolve around a last-minute penalty awarded to Palace by referee Jon Moss for a foul on Wilfried Zaha by Raheem Sterling. The incident, which was almost a carbon copy of the penalty won by Sterling for Manchester City in their defeat of Arsenal, reignited vociferous claims from sections of the media that Wilfried Zaha had dived and dives consistently.

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The incident was apparently examined by the new diving commission after the game and it was decided that Zaha had no case to answer, yet if anything this seemed to cause the voices accusing  Zaha to amplify rather than decrease, with national newspapers running stories where ex referees and former pros single out and chastise Zaha in a way that seems factually baseless and more importantly, these voices seem to show a fundamental misunderstanding of the way in which Wilfried Zaha plays football.

Much of the criticism of Zaha cites the Ivorian as a direct and fast winger, who beats players for speed, which is largely not the case. unlike fellow Palace winger Andros Townsend, Zaha’s game is largely not built on pace.

Wilfried Zaha’s biggest attribute is largely his electrifying footwork. The way in which Zaha beats full backs is not from sprinting past them, but from juggling a football between his two feet and maintaining control whilst on the move, a skill at which, he is statistically one of the best in the world at. Zaha’s movement is direct, but his skill is using his natural ability to protect the ball until a defender attempts to tackle him and Zaha can move past the player into the space created from dragging the defender out of the line.

This technique is incredibly difficult for defenders to stop within the rules because of the precision and accuracy in timing tackles that is needed. The amount of fouls Zaha suffers is no surprise and probably largely unintentional on the part of the opposition because in full flow Zaha moves in such a way that creates and dictates the pace of that portion of the game. Any slight mis-timed attempt at the ball is going to result in the defender hacking at Zaha’s leg or clipping his ankle because of the speed at which he moves his feet around the ball.

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Fouls are largely miss timed rather than malicious, however the sheer number of these fouls and the fact Zaha plays for somewhat of an unfashionable side, seems to contribute to this idea that somehow, to get fouled as much as he does he must be diving. Also given the nature of the fluidity of Zaha’s game and his love of playing for Palace, it’s often frustrating for the winger when he is abruptly halted and he usually aims this ire at the referee.

It’s probably a fair assessment that Zaha tends to go down a lot and that not all of these are fouls.The quick shifts of balance involved in the way he plays are always going to make him slightly susceptible to going over and his tendency to aggressively appeal every time for a decision, where he may be needs to learn to play the percentage more, hinders rather than helps his case but to suggest that he is somehow a cheat or attempting to deceive referees in the same manner as players who go down without any contact to get a decision seems largely unfair and irrational and is more based in the English games traditionally suspicion of skilful players as somehow being a luxury or as show offs rather than an admiration of natural ability outside of the elite clubs.

Zaha is easily having his best season yet and establishing himself as one of the best talents in the Premier League. His talismanic presence is key to Palace’s survival hopes and it seems if he keeps improving at the current rate the sky is the limit for him. He’s still shaking off the shackles of an unfair reputation. Zaha continues to be a misunderstood maverick rather than some kind of devious conman and hopefully he’ll soon get the wider recognition and understanding from the English game, that he deserves.

Before the Transfer Window opened, Roy Hodgson was blunt about what he wanted to be added to his squad as he plotted Premier League survival; a goalkeeper, a central midfielder and a striker. As injuries mounted up at the start of January, that evolved to Roy suggesting he would need six or seven additions.

While transfers are complex transactions, usually with four directly interested parties and usually at least two other intermediaries, the Window has now closed with the only additions being Erdal Rakip (on loan), Jarosław Jach and late on Deadline Day Alexander Sørloth. These signings provide the manager with cover at centre back, central midfield and up front but being the only additions, concerns about squad depth remain.

Hodgson has performed above expectations, taking a team which has zero points and goals from seven games to one which has 26 points in the 19 game since and is currently on a run which has seen just two defeats from 14. If ever a manager deserved backing above and beyond it is Roy. He, his staff and the players in the squad who have been working hard to drive the team up the league can all feel let down.

A goalkeeper should have been one of the priorities of the Window. The Vicente Guaita saga hung over the club and while it is understandable that Palace tried to get him in now, a call should have been made earlier that the €4 million gap between what we believed his release clause to be and what Getafe believe it to be was too large and a line should have been drawn under this. Instead, a move for Frederik Ronnow fell through late on as his club hadn’t enough time to sign a replacement.

#VälkommenErdal! ?

Erdal Rakip has joined #CPFC ? on loan from @SLBenfica until the end of the season!

Find out more ?https://t.co/cXVayOCkIo pic.twitter.com/olXckw1zHc

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) January 22, 2018

Likewise with Ibrahim Amadou, where issues with the transfer were being reported throughout the day yet the club did not move on other lined up targets. Reports in Turkey suggested Palace pulled out of a move for Ozan Tufan because they were confident of landing Amadou but that was premature and showed aspects of recruitment as being immature.

There is frustration among the fan base; this frustration is justified. The squad, given the injuries, is arguably weaker than when the window opened. The midfield has lost Ruben Loftus-Cheek for some time and Jason Puncheon for the rest of the season. The only replacement brought in was Rakip. Bakary Sako has been used as cover wide and up front – his injury has not been covered. While Sørloth has come in, he should have been in addition to our fit players. The attacking options remain sparse from the bench.

And Hodgson still only has Wayne Hennessey and Julian Speroni to pick from in goal. The issues with this position are two-fold. Firstly, neither a marginally improved Hennessey nor declining Speroni are of a standard of being an assured Premier League number 1. For a multitude of reasons, the club could not address this in August. To let another window lapse without adding a ‘keeper to start in February is rightly causing angst.

Ultimately, though, the club needed to sign a goalkeeper just to make up the numbers anyway – we have gone through half a season with some rotation between the pair. To go on for the rest of the season, with Hennessey’s back injury issues documented, borders on incompetent.
The cumulative impact of Transfer Windows like this should not be underestimated.

We are in this position because the club’s need to buy first team players each window, usually because of a change in manager and thus outlook, has meant beyond the first XI, the gap in talent is startling. We needed a strong window this time not only to boost the chances of survival, but with next summer in mind. Many players are out of contract and there needed to be plans in place in January to ease the burden at the end of the season. Failure in January has meant the pressure is already on for the summer.

DONE DEAL: Jaroslaw Jach has joined Crystal Palace from Zagłębie Lubin, singing a three and a half year contract.

[via @CPFC] pic.twitter.com/TPi39EGcGA

— Squawka News (@SquawkaNews) January 23, 2018

It is understandable, in the context of the transfer market, that clubs like Palace have to wait until close to the end of the window to bring players in. Not ideal, but fathomable. Transfers are difficult in themselves – that they occur like a house sale chain adds to the entanglement factor. However, sometimes it needs to be acknowledged that effort was not enough; the January 2018 Transfer Window has been a failure even if Roy keeps us up.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, it should be acknowledged that that club has made strides in terms of the infrastructure around recruitment. A system has been invested in. New analysts are in place. There is a Sporting Director increasing the club’s network in Europe, building upon the contacts of a manager who has vast experience on the continent. That provides hope for the summer, however the January Transfer Window went. But we are Palace fans; and hope is our biggest killer.

Nicolas Berlinski takes a look at why yesterday's game was such a tepid affair. 

Strangely, the M23 derby didn’t feel like the M23 derby. Brighton’s Amex Stadium just wasn’t as up for the match, and really lacked the atmosphere of a heated game between two sides with a running history.

Unlike the Premier League fixture in November, the stadium was half empty, with the attendance at around 14,000 in the 30,0000-seater stadium. Both sets of fans had various hurdles to deal with regarding the fixture.

First, there was the fact that the match was moved to a Monday night kick-off in order to accommodate TV. This heavily complicated match day logistics and feasibility for fans, especially the away contingent, due to work, a phenomenon seemingly unknown to the Football Association whereby people work for an employer in exchange for monetary compensation, typically from Monday to Friday.

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Palace filled almost their entire ticket allocation but the home section of the stadium was very sparsely populated. That greatly dampened the mood and drama of a deserving occasion. For the neutral TV-watcher, a Monday night clash in a half-empty stadium is unappetizing, no matter how many times the commentator mentions it’s a derby.

Also, many Palace fans were turned off from a trip to the Amex after Sussex Police’s widely criticized operation in the Premier League fixture. Many were denied entry into the stadium due to a small contingent of Palace fans that forced their way into the ground when police failed to prevent them.

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After being herded around Brighton like sheep for more than an hour, supporters were held outside the stadium as the match went on for an hour and then kettled home without getting a chance to see the game. Sussex Police defended their actions by alleging that knives and knuckledusters were seized from fans, a claim they were later forced to retract due to it being blatantly false.

Another encounter with an incompetent Sussex Police force unable to prevent ticketless fans entering the ground and that falsely tarnished the reputations of both sets of supporters was off-putting.

Arguably the police’s issues were not the FA’s fault but the FA could have demonstrated some more sense by scheduling the match for a Sunday lunchtime kick-off, a time where fans might have consumed more alcohol and been more satiated than prior to a nighttime kickoff. Instead the FA took the TV channel’s sides and ignored what happened the last time the sides played on a weekday night.

Despite the police’s exaggerations there were certain fans that came with violent intention and the FA failed to find a solution that benefitted peaceful fans.

Then, there was the issue that the match wasn’t a spectacle. On both sides, rotated squads were played and many key players seemed run down from an exhausting holiday fixture list in December. The physical effect was noticeable in the slow and scrappy play. In the first ten minutes alone, Brighton’s Izzy Brown and Palace’s Jeffrey Schlupp went down injured and were subbed off. Meanwhile Andros Townsend suffered an injury later in the game that could also see him miss matches.

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Last but not least, Virtual Assistant Referee was trialed in this fixture and so continued the developing comical narrative of VAR. Glenn Murray’s winner seemed to possibly have been a handball, regardless of whether or not it was handled, the refereeing team failed to consult their shiny new technology for something useful. Though the video was checked before the goal was awarded, an official review was not made in a controversial situation where it might have been employed.

Like Palace fans, the FA will hope to forget this match. Much is said about ‘the magic of the cup’ dying and, to be fair, the FA did their hallmark competition no favours in this third round tie.