Another defeat leaves Palace facing reality

Last updated : 30 October 2006 By Nik Taylor

So there we go. Another gutless home defeat and suddenly the season takes on a very different complexion.

Rewind a couple of months and all Palace fans were dreaming of soon leaving the Championship behind.


Following Saturday's showing, it's painfully obvious that simply hanging onto that place in the second tier should be our first priority.


This latest Selhurst Park capitulation against a distinctly average Plymouth side leaves us just six points clear of the bottom three. The cloud-cuckoo brigade will point out that we're also six points away from the play-offs – but that is not the direction this team is heading.


We have not won a match since scraping past Coventry 1-0 five weeks ago and have not kept a clean sheet in just as long. Forget promotion. Forget the play-offs. This is a team in serious danger of becoming embroiled in a relegation struggle just as bitter as 2000-2001.


Now, as then, we have a side full of decent players that should be among the front-runners. But once more, they look like a bunch of strangers rather than a team. They look like they don't understand the tactics they are being asked to play. And there is not a leader on the pitch that can pull the team together when times get hard.

With Aki having departed in the summer and with Michael Hughes reduced to a peripheral role even when fit, no-one can motivate the team. New signing Carl Fletcher has yet to impress as a player and is certainly no captain. His deputy, Mark Kennedy, takes a mean corner but is similarly lacking in any ability to gee up the team.


Peter Taylor inherited a side capable of reaching the play-offs without even having to play very well. So far, all he has done is take that side backwards with some questionable purchases and even more questionable man-management.


He does not have long to effect a remarkable change in fortune. Simon Jordan is not noted for sitting on his hands when things start to go badly and if this winless run lasts much longer Taylor could have a lot more time to focus on his England U21 side.