Crystal Palace vs Norwich & Powerchair Football
Updated: Aug 4, 2023
Hi Everyone,
Hope your all well
In this post I'm gonna be talking about the Palace vs Norwich game and also my first Powerchair football regional weekend on this season.So on Saturday 28th of September I attended the Crystal Palace vs Norwich game, it was at Selhurst park and my carer Vicki took me to the game. Norwich were a newly promoted team but they had previously beaten Manchester City 3-2 the previous week so we knew what they were capable of.The game started at 3pm and Palace had an early opportunity in the second minute as Zaha was able to take a shot after getting down the right but sadly nothing was made of it and the ball just flew over the crossbar. Palace seemed to have control over the game in the opening section of the game as Norwich we’re still trying to find there feet, during this period Zaha started to look very lively and this continued throughout the rest of the game. Palace have another chance in the 13th after Ayew was able to take a shot but was saved by the Norwich keeper. Throughout the match we did very well to push Norwich back and force them into mistakes. All Palaces hard work paid off as in the 20th minute as Zaha was able to cut the ball back for McArthur who was bought down in the box by a Norwich defender, the ref instantly points to the spot and it was time for the skipper to step up on his 100th Palace appearance to take the pen of course he slotted the ball into the right corner making it 1-0 to Palace! After the goal the atmosphere around the stadium was amazing as we hear ‘and I’m feeling GLAD ALL OVER’ ring around the stadium. Norwich’s first key chance came in the 30th minute as Pukki was able to get the ball in the box but his shot was tipped over the bar by Guaita. This was closely followed by a few other attempts from Norwich one of which had to be cleared off the line from Kelly (who had returned back to the starting 11 after being dropped for the replacement of Sakho) but they couldn’t make anything from them. In the 45th minute there was a penalty shot from Norwich after the ball apparently hit Schlupps arm in the box but Jon Moss says no and I can confirm it didn’t hit his arm in any way. Nothing else happened after this and it was then half time.
The second half was kicked off by Norwich. Ayew nearly got a shooting opportunity from close range but was sharply stopped by a Norwich defender. Our first key chance dame in the 52nd minute after Ayew was able to play the ball into the path of McArthur on the edge of the box but he wasn’t able to get on target and just send it over the bar. It felt like our players were fouled a lot throughout the match but this wasn’t proven by the amount of cards Norwich was given and surprisingly we received more yellow cards then them. Our first substitute came in the 70th minute when Andros Townsend came on in replace of Cheikhou Kouyate, I felt that he played really well in this game. Our next chance came in the 79th minute when Milivojevic was able to put a corner into the back post for Cahill to nod back down but Ayew wasn’t able to get his foot to the ball to put it in the back of the net. Our second sub came in the 79th minute and it was James McCarthy coming on in replace of James McArthur. Townsend was able to play a brilliant ball onto the head of Zaha but he was sadly unable to direct the ball goal-wards from 5 yards. Our third and final substitute came in the 90th minute and it was Max Meyer coming on in replace of Jordan Ayew, hopefully gets his opportunity to play more very soon because he has so much potential. When the forth officially held up the board to say 5 minutes ET I felt my heart drop because I didn’t want the result to repeat itself after the goal in the last minute against Wolves. But luckily for us in the 90+2nd minute Zaha was able to do some brilliant hold up play before playing the ball into the feet of Townsend who was able to smash the ball into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 Palace once again the stadium erupted and this definitely settled some nerves around the ground. That was basically the final piece of action before the end of the game. The final score was 2-0 to Crystal Palace we definitely out played Norwich and 100% deserved the result.
After the game we stayed behind to see the players. The players I saw were Patrick Van-Aanholt, Luka Milivojevic, Joel Ward, James McArthur, James McCarthy and Gary Cahill, I took my last seasons shirt to get signed by them too. I also saw Zaha but he only had pictures with a few people cause he was to ‘busy’ to stay.
Match stats:
• Palace had a total of 44.6% possession, Norwich had 55.4%
• Palace had a total of 15 shots with 3 on target.
• Norwich had 10 shots with 3 on target.
Regionals
For this season I decided to go out on loan from my club Sevenoaks PFC to Crystal Palace Powerchair football club. I decided to do this to try and regain my confidence in myself I had massively lost the previous season and obviously I support Palace so what better club to go to. I had only been to a few training sessions with them before regionals but they were all really nice people and all welcomed me with open arms. My games were at 2 and 4 but I got there about 12 to watch Sevenoaks play and to support them before my games. The games were slightly delayed so I didn’t start my first game until about 2.30. Before our first game every player has to be speed tested which is where they measure everyone’s chair speeds to make sure nobody has no unfair advantages.
Our first game was against Aspire Lions PFC and it was obviously my first game playing in a palace shirt, I felt slightly nervous but more excited to be able to help my home team to try and get a result. My preferred position is on the wing but because the person who normally plays in the middle wasn’t there I was asked to step in, I’m not used to this position but I did my best to help the team. We ended up finishing the game 5-0 and I scored 4 of those but obviously couldn’t have done it without the team performance. I also scored another one but it was disallowed due to contact before the goal went in and I also won a penalty after receiving contact in the box. The team showed a really good performance and after the game I was informed that was the first win they’ve had so I was happy to be able to help this be possible.
During the break I watched Sevenoaks others games. Our second game was against Greenwich PFC this was slightly harder because it involved more defensive play due to the players being more experienced, i was a bit unused to defending because I’m usually an attacking player but that’s something I’m gonna have to work on, the game ended 2-1 to them but the whole team showed a strong performance so should be proud of this. Looking forward to next regionals which is some time in October.
Thank you for reading
Ellie xx
