Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa

Updated: Aug 4, 2023

Hi everybody,

Hope you are all well

Sorry this took so long to post I recently returned to school so haven't had a chance to write it till now.

On Saturday 31st August we attended the Crystal Palace vs newly promoted team Aston Villa at Selhurst Park. Our last Premier League game was against Manchester United away and we came away with a tremendous result and 3 points after winning 2-1, sadly I was in France and was not able to watch the match but from what I heard it was a really good game and I'm gutted I missed it.

This weeks game started at 3pm and at the beginning of the game it was sunny so it was nice to be at Selhurst Park watching the boys play in the warm. It started with most of the possession being with Aston Villa at the opposite end of the pitch. Throughout the whole game the ref gave out many yellow cards mainly to Aston Villa players because they were fouling us through the game probably to try and wind us up but luckily none of our players fell for it. There was a lot of abuse shown to the ref from the Villa fans as they felt he was 'unfit' to be a ref and was making 'bad' decisions.

Palace's first attempt at a goal came in the 12th minute by Jeffrey Schlupp who tried a left footed shot from the centre of the box but it was blocked by an Aston Villa defender, after this we had a couple of other shots on goal but none were executed. Crystal Palace got their first corner in the 37th minute and then in the 41st minute we got another 3 consecutive corners but nothing came of them. There was only 2 minutes of added time and nothing happened in this time.

In the 2nd half again Aston Villa got off to a strong start but it only lasted a few minutes and was stopped by an attempt on goal from Cheikhou Kouyate but he was unable to score for us, he tried again in the 48th minute but wasn't able to get the shot on target. In the 54th minute Kevin Friend the match day Referee showed Treseguet he's 2nd yellow card of the game leading to a red card meaning Aston Villa were down to 10 men. Patrick Van Aanholt was able to take a shot from outside the box but it was blocked and led to a Palace corner, during this time Palace started to look very dangerous on the attack and the atmosphere around Selhurst Park was getting louder and louder trying to urge the players to score. We had so many shots in the next few minutes but was just unable to stick the ball into the back of the net. Until the 73rd minute when the first goal of the game came from Crystal Palaces Jordan Ayew who had previously scored at Manchester United, hopefully this is the start of a good start this season for Jordan. When the ball hit the back of the net the stadium erupted as we felt we finally got what we deserved. Jordan was able to score the goal using he's right foot from the left side of the box after a Palace counter attack leaving Ayew up against 2 Aston Villa players but was able to get in between them both and get a beautiful strike into the bottom of the net, you could see how much the goal meant to him. It was now 1-0 to Crystal Palace. I was informed after the game by my step dad that Christian Benteke was just about to come on to the pitch to replace Ayew, luckily Jordan scored in time and the substitution was held off until the 86th minute. The other 2 subs were made in the 79th minute and 84th minute and they were Andros Townsend and Mamadou Sakho coming on in replace of Jeffrey Schlupp and Martin Kelly. Kelly was injured so hopefully its not a long term injury but it was nice to see Sakho returning to the pitch after a long term injury.

There was then a massive buzz around Selhurst Park as everyone was thinking we could be getting our first 3 points of the season at home. Towards the end of the game my older cousin came down to sit with us and it started to rain so he went to ask a steward for a waterproof protector for myself but they said 'they didn't have any and it was basically the end of the game anyway', where my mum was sitting there was a big drip dripping water on her so she moved and my cousin stayed with me. There was a bit of late game drama in the 96th minute after Jack Grealish was able to get through our defence, apparently picking up a "knock" on the way through but releasing the ball to another Aston Villa player that was able to score, the Aston Villa celebrations were cut short as the referee had already blown he's whistle for simulation from Grealish in the box and the goal was disallowed and Palace were awarded a free kick. This angered a lot of Aston Villa fans and players because they felt they should of had a goal, this started a massive fight in the away end between the fans and the stewards, I feel this was a bit extreme and humiliating for their club and its not going to change the result, but they continued to fight after the game ended leaving the police having to step in.

That was the end of the game and it ended 1-0 to Crystal Palace.

My man of the match is Jordan Ayew because he worked hard throughout the game and ended it getting the match wining goal.

After the game we stayed behind to see the players because the Palace team were taking a while to come out we went to the away end because my mum suggested we might see ex England player John Terry. We didn't see him but we did see Jack Grealish and Wesley who were very nice and accommodating to me being in a wheelchair. we also saw some Palace players who were Luka Milivojevic, Victor Camarasa, Jeffrey Schlupp, Mamadou Sakho (who kindly stopped for me in the car park) and ex Palace legend Mark Bright.