The FA Cup has always had a sort of special meaning in our household. The Villa Park heroics are perhaps my Dad’s most recounted story and the last FA Cup Final we reached was my late Nan’s, Dorris, last trip to Wembley. Her last match before the dreaded c-word began to take a deeper hold was our 3-0 win in ’91 vs. Manchester United; matches vs. Man U therefore hold a deeper meaning in their own right than just because we lost to them last time we got this far. With this in mind, and knowing who we had in the final should we win, it all got a bit emotional at full time; there were a few tears shed from myself, brother, mum and of course my Dad for whom Dorris was such a wonderful mother.

But we had a legitimate reason. We had just got through to the FA CUP FINAL! Football in particular, has a funny way of reducing grown-ups to tears. Sadly, Dorris never did get a second chance to see Palace win the FA Cup. We now get the chance for her.

The semi-final day was beautiful and the joy carried into the following. The chap I sit next to at work, who was sat up the other end on the day, was not in such a good mood as I when we met again on the Monday. He admitted that the best team won both on and off the pitch and we then quite simply didn’t talk about it anymore; I had other concerns anyway such as the deep fatigue from the constant jumping and blowing up the 200 balloons I took to the ground, the shredded voice from the singing and the raw eyes from the smoke bombs let off in block 111 in which I was sat stood 17 hours previous. The atmosphere at the semi-final was up with one of the greatest I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing; the celebrations up there with the most impassioned, the sea of red and blue was awe-inspiring and the noise at times deafening; as the BBC commentary team nervously pointed out, we quite literally made the stadium shake.

It was however a nervy affair. I’m never good when we score and go into the lead; a deep sense of panic seems to hijack all my senses leaving me unable to harvest rational thought, which may in part explain my ultra-emotional and physically erratic response to the whole game. You could have filmed me for the full 90 minutes and it would make for hilarious viewing.

So Man U? We’ve been here before. At least this time there will be no ridiculous FA Cup Final bumble bee kit and no replays should we draw, although I do hope there is another CPFC squad rendition of ‘Glad All Over’ or Yala releases some FA Rap. They are a good team but by no means great any more. There will be some interesting battles such as Martial vs. Ward, Fellaini the Elbow vs. Mile the Elbow and Wilf/Yala vs. Rojo/Darmian. They will go in as favourites but I’m not nervous about them at all at the moment.

At the moment I’m more nervous about getting a ticket for the final than the day itself or facing Man U; my 2,000 loyalty points will mean I will have to wait until phase 9.2.6 to be able to purchase my ticket and will only be able to do so if I buy a novelty Michele Padovano figurine, or something equally daft, but what a day to look forward to!

But why be nervous like I was vs. Watford? We are the underdogs and we’ve had plenty of practice at being just that, it’s familiar territory and we are very good in this space. We have already beaten four Premier League teams and a very good Championship side on our way (back) to Wembley. We are doing this the hard way. One of those teams, Tottingham, are also considerably better than Man United are at the moment. It’s just one more game. We can beat anyone. I have no expectations. I must heed the advice of my own words.

I will turn up with the intention of enjoying the day for what it is, one of the biggest days in the club’s history. I will do my bit to make a balloon merchant that little bit richer again and will also do my bit to make Wembley shake again.

For the 11 on the pitch.

For Red and Blue.

And for Dorris.

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Jack Pierce has a look at our form, and league tables for previous seasons, and isn't sure that we can relax just yet.

My daily commute offers me 45-50 minutes to read, listen or think twice a day.

Seems a long time ago but before Christmas, I had things on my mind.

How could I arrange my annual leave so that I could make the three trips to Lisbon, Poznan and Sion that the 2016/17 Europa League group stage would provide Palace with?

When Palace finish 5th and Alan Pardew is obviously summoned by the FA to take the reins of the England job, who do we get in to replace him?

Jose Mourinho?

Carlo Ancelotti?

Could we even sway Pep Guardiola from Manchester’s blue to South London’s red and blue?

What would my family think if I changed my middle name to ‘James McArthur’?

Well, times have bloody changed and I’m starting to panic.

This morning, after Saturday’s non-performances against Leicester, the 13th game in this sobering winless streak, I felt the urge to see how many points the previous five seasons’ relegated teams earned in their last 21 games – the amount of matches Palace would’ve played by the end of the season since that blissful winter’s day at The Britannia – and how many they garnered in total in their forlorn bids to beat the drop. Why?

1) At 7.35am, Eastbourne train station is dull.
2) I’m starting to brick it.

2014/15 (End of season total in brackets)

20 QPR: 13 points (30)
19 Burnley: 18 points (33)
18 Hull: 22 points (35)
2013/14
20 Cardiff: 13 points (30)
19 Fulham: 19 points (32)
18 Norwich: 14 points (33)
2012/13
20 QPR: 15 points (25)
19 Reading: 16 points (28)
18 Wigan: 21 points (36)
2011/12
20 Wolves: 10 points (25)
19 Blackburn: 21 points (31)
18 Bolton: 21 points (36)
2010/11
20 West Ham: 21 points (33)
19 Blackpool: 14 points (39)
18 Birmingham: 21 points (39)

The average end of season points total for those 15 teams is just over 32.

Palace are already on 33 so panic over, folks; Steve Parish and his American mates can get Croydon Council down to Selhurst to measure up for a new stand and John Salako can plan a new dance routine for when we start winning again.

If only it was so clear cut.

The odds of us going down remain slim but the threat remains distinct and one that we can’t really say goodbye to until we remember how to win a game or stagger into three or four draws. By 5pm on Saturday 9th April, we could be 17th. 17th!!!

It’s only going to take Norwich beating Newcastle a week on Saturday, us losing at Upton Park on the same day and Alex Neil’s side taking the spoils at Selhurst Park when they come to SE25. The proverbial just got real and it’s not just the consequence of Saturday’s result; we’ve ambled into a very real relegation battle and may well only survive because of the state of the three clubs that currently occupy the bottom three if things don’t improve quickly.

Aston Villa are trying their hardest to appear as disorganised as possible and go down in an air of real despair so tick them off. There are just two spots for next season's Championship going and thankfully, the North East really wants them! Newcastle and Sunderland have shown glimpses that they might have enough to pull themselves from trouble but neither have put together the sequence of wins that are so vital at this time of the season. Sunday’s draw at St James’ Park did nothing for them but was a relief to us.

Both have changed managers and both, Newcastle in particular, have spent money in bids to keep the drop from the door. At this stage, it would be fair to say it'll be a shock if both manage to stay up but surely, having been fifth at Christmas, we can't be relying upon the failure of others to keep our place in the top flight.

The result against Leicester on Saturday didn’t cause alarm; The Foxes are within touching distance of their greatest ever achievement and getting anything from them would’ve been against the odds but our performance and approach was a real cause of concern.

Defensively, we were all over the place during the first half.

It’s been said a lot but our full backs are becoming cause for real concern. Pape Souaré’s positional sense has never been great but on Saturday, he left what sense he does have in the changing room. His lack of positional discipline often allowed Riyad Mahrez, whose ability is no secret, so much freedom it was comical. Souaré slotted into the side very well after he first arrived from Lillie last January but his form since the turn of the year has been alarming. He’s not the only one unfortunately.

It takes a lot for me to criticise Joel Ward; he’s been a favourite of mine since he arrived from Portsmouth in 2012 and I’ll forever be grateful for his header of the line in the dying seconds at Wembley but for the first time during his Palace career I’m starting to question him. He doesn’t seem to read the game as well as he has done previously and the full back that was being touted for an England call up during Tony Pulis’ tenure at Palace is nowhere to be seen.

If the defence is cause for worry, going forward didn’t looking much better on Saturday.

I don’t know about others but I looked on in astonishment as we played for 35 minutes of the second half, while being 1-0 down, without a striker. We started the second half by putting Bakary Sako on with the apparent job to whip crosses into the box. However, nobody with understanding of the striker role to be on the end of them was on the pitch as Yannick Bolasie, a winger, had been asked to play centrally. When we did put Dwight Gayle, an actual striker, on with less than ten minutes to go, we started lumping it long through the middle; Robert Huth and Wes Morgan must have been loving it. The lack of a coherent approach was worrying and stank of a team low in confidence and short of ideas.

Alan Pardew’s faith in Yannick is laudable; he clearly rates him very, very highly. The winger can provide moments of brilliance and is a fantastic player to have within our ranks but this continued experiment of playing him through the middle is one that shows no signs of working on a regular basis. Pardew appears either too reliant upon him or doesn't know exactly what to do with him in order to get the best out of him. Either way, it’s not great.

The run since Christmas has highlighted the distinct lack of depth in the squad. There’s no hiding from the fact our first 11 looked comfortable in the top eight up until Christmas but with injuries and longer term absences taking their toll, our squad’s looked bottom six at best. Any side that loses the balance and composure of Jimmy Mac in the middle of the park and the explosive threat of Yannick would struggle but you shouldn’t anticipate the loss of two players providing the catalyst for such a terrible run. Provided we stay up, real investment in the squad, not just the first team, is vital.

Signing Emmanuel Adebayor was a gamble; he’d either hit the ground running and light our season up or, as it seems will be the case, he’d amble about, leave the manager with little choice but to substitute him halfway through games and leave fans fairly underwhelmed. His performance on Saturday was a particular lowlight; he produced absolutely nothing and some Palace fans have claimed they could clearly see the ex-Spurs man having a row with his manager during the first half. If that was indeed the case, it’s no surprise he was pulled at half time.

On grounds of what he’s offered thus far, extending the striker’s contract is surely unlikely and after three full seasons in the Premier League, provided we stay up, I’d like to think the club has the resource and nous to attract players whose best days are so clearly behind them as is the case with Adebayor. With the much discussed increase in TV revenue that’s due to be dumped at the door of Premier League clubs in the summer, there really will be no excuse to be relying upon signing free agents who haven’t played a competitive game for nearly a year at the end of the window.

It would be typically ‘Palace’, whatever the hell that means, to end this winless run with a sequence of wins and cruise to safety and after all, we do have an FA Cup semi final to look forward to. If we secure our place in next season’s top flight between now and the end of the season and win the FA Cup, 2015/16 would go down in history as perhaps the greatest season in the club’s existence and this winless run, however long it ends up at, would become a rather amusing footnote.

Please don’t read this article as a deranged Palace fan insisting that we should be mixing it up in the top six from August to May. I was as surprised as anyone about how well we performed during the first half of the season and had to pinch myself when I saw our in and around the top six week after week. However, the fall in form and league position since December is hugely concerning and has been very disappointing to watch.

Despite recent seasons suggesting we’re only a win or a few draws away from having enough points to stay up, after the start to the season that got fans so excited for where the club and this team were heading, should we be satisfied with limping over the finishing line?

What do you think, is Jack panicking a little too much? Or is he right to be concerned? Comment below!

Earlier this week the Daily Mirror decided to round up players at Premier league clubs who are underrated, and put forward the idea that some of them might be worth a punt at their respective clubs. For Palace the name they came up with was that of Adrian Mariappa, a forgotten man at Selhurst Park this season who has ended up playing more football at international level than he has for his club.

Mariappa arrived at Palace under manager Iain Holloway on transfer deadline day back in September 2013 as one of his many signings during his scattergun approach to players at that time. When Holloway departed he was inherited by the incoming Tony Pulis and by the end of that season had turned out in 24 Premier League games, ironically scoring his only goal in Holloway's last game the awful 4-1 defeat at home to Fulham in October.

Up until his arrival at Selhurst Park he had primarily been used as a centre back for most of his career at Watford where he graduated through their youth system (starting nearly 250 first team games), playing as a right back when he was younger. He then continued in the middle for all of his time at Reading during 2012-13 when he appeared 32 times in all competitions for the Royals.

Palace and Holloway (then Pulis) had other plans and saw him as a right back to provide both cover and competition for Joel Ward, and since then that is where he has appeared for us in all of the 45 league and cup games he's played since his arrival.

This season his appearances have been restricted to 3 starts in the league cup at right back, alongside a PL appearance there in the 1-0 defeat away to Leicester, where despite the scoreline Palace lost only due to a mistake from Brede Hangleand. He's been a non appearing sub on the bench 12 times keeping it warm, and in the meantime has been regularly starting for Jamaica in their World Cup 2018 qualifying games.

The question is with Palace on a shaky run for the whole of 2016 so far, surely it's worth seeing if a change in defence (which has been a major problem the last few months) and bringing back Mariappa would be worth a go?

Joel Ward has been on a shaky run of form probably since he scored away at Chelsea and has regularly been caught too far forward of late or out of position. He's also had a tendancy one or twice to get sucked into the middle. Now this could of course be manager's instructions and the way he's setting the team out.

But what Mariappa would offer as a change potentially is a bit more stability on the right. He's not prone to the raiding runs that Ward (and Souare on the left) will go on, and generally sticks to his guns in a positional sense. That's not to say that he's slow as he can also break forward and cross, but seems safety conscious first about his main duty on the pitch before committing himself further up the attack.

He may not be the answer to all our problems of course, but it's an option that Alan Pardew doesn't seem willing to consider, even if things are switched on the left with Joel Ward or Martin Kelly appearing there. Then there's also the fact the defence are leaking silly goals through loose marking, as was seen recently in the Leicester home game. Like Kelly, he was a centre back so also offers an option there we haven't seen at all that could be considered.

With Adrian's Palace contract up in the early part of next season, it's likely if he doesn't feature soon that we've seen the last of him and at a time when we're crying out for some defensive solidarity, it could be a shame he's not given a go.

What do you think? Comment below!

Drop him

Will the Hennessy die hards (seemingly now just one or two Palace fans in Wales) please look away now.

There are many who have no truck with any criticism of Wayne at all. Indeed, I reckon that even if he actually ran the length of the pitch, tackled Yala, then dribbled the ball back and shot into the empty net from 25 yards, some would blame Jedi for not tackling him on the half way line.

Despite the worst run of form in recent memory, the disintegration of a rock solid defence, the team conceding almost 2 goals per game and Wayne being named in football 365”s worst XI, Wayne seems immovable (and i don't just mean on crosses and shots)

So let’s examine the context.

Bought in January 201, he was not picked during the rest of that season.

This year, with Jules injured, Pards chose McCarthy rather than Wayne.

Finally when gets his chances he has a four game purple patch and seems set fair. But no, within a month, the club is desperately trying to sign Rob Green.There is only one possible reason for all that; Pards himself doesn't truly rate Wayne.

This is important, because many who oppose dropping him suggest Jules has ‘had his day’ and Wayne is the future. Well, you heard it here first, one thing is for sure: Wayne is not our future (unless maybe if Wales win Euro 2016).

Now; the mistakes! look, the article has a 600 word limit so I can’t describe them all but ...Villa away; the next game and Delph from 30 yards with Wayne ike an old oak tree; the debacle with Dann to let Sunderland score: the hospital throw to Soare v Watford; rooted to the spot as Kayne nips in to head in; Swansea away where even the MOTD commentators featured his 'poor keeping'; the list is too long.

But it’s the general lack of presence, mobility, confidence that is most worrying. And the team knows it, the fans know it. You actually are starting to hear audible intakes of breath at Selhurst as a cross comes in or a long shot is made. And that is why a previously solid defence looks built on sand now.

People will say; he makes some brilliant saves. But isn’t that a basic requirement? They will also point to his Player of the Month period; and yes, but it was then followed by Villa and Man City away. And anyway, do you remember who was Player of the month before that? Brede Hangalaand. For whom just one costly mistake meant he has not played since.

Even his own fans tend to defend, rather than praise him, ‘It’s a team game, you can’t just focus on the keeper’ ‘he was great in December’ ‘Jules made mistakes too’.

And yes, of course, it’s a team game; and, of course, others have good and bad games; but few have such potentially obvious replacements of a similar standard ready to step in.

Wayne strikes me as a shy, unassuming - probably lovely - chap. All wonderful qualities, but not necessarily in a goal keeper. But in truth, I think this all for nought, as I do not believe he will be dropped. Pards missed his chance and to drop him now would be an admission too that. And in some ways, i know don’t even want him to because if he did, and Jules made one tiny mistake, he would be crucified.

So I am left to sing his name, with the other seven or so who still do, but it is more in hope than expectation.

By Patrick Stevens

Don't drop him

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