Crystal Palace v Leicester City
Updated: Aug 4, 2023
Hi everyone,
I hope you are all well.
On Sunday 3rd November I attended the Crystal Palace vs Leicester City game at Selhurst Park.
The day before the match we received some sad news that the Palace players head security guard had unexpectedly passed away. This was very upsetting for my family as we were very close to him. We saw him every time we went to Selhurst Park and he was a big part of the match days. He will be very missed by all fans, staff and players. RIP Ady 24/8/67- 2/11/19.
Before the game kicked off there was a minutes silent in memory of all of the soldiers we lost and that fought for our country during the war. This was quite emotional as it gave us time to reflect.
The game started at 2pm and the sun was partially out making it not as cold as it has been. The first half of the game started early with a chance from Leicester but they were unable to get anything from it. Palace responded quickly with a chance at the other end when McArthur was able to have a shot but it wasn't a dangerous attempt and Leicester were able to deal with it. This followed by another attempt by Palace but this time was Ayew when he was through on goal but his shot blazed over the bar.
Leicester then had a few free kicks, they have a very dangerous player in the middle who is very good at free kicks. His name is James Maddison he also plays for England. Luckily he was unable to score against us. Palaces defence was questioned by the Leicester team a few times in the first half but we managed to keep it 0-0.
At one point in the game Leicesters Goal keeper accidentally kicked the ball over the stadium from a goals kick. This lead to the ball being lost and the Palace fans behind the goal being very annoyed at him. This escalated into them throwing cans at him and into the goal meaning the game couldn't continue for a few minutes. In my opinion this is ridiculous behaviour as it affected our team as well. Fans shouldn't behave like this.
Just before half time Palace had another attempt at a goal but this time it was from Jeffrey Schlupp whose attempt was kicked over the bar giving palace their first corner of the game. The corner gave Palace an opportunity to test Leicesters defence but sadly nothing came of it.
The final piece of action was a free kick from Palace. Van Aanholts delivery made it to the back post that was met by Tomkins but he controlled it with his arm so a free kick was awarded to Leicester. It was then half time.
The second half started well for Palace as we were able to play some lovely football but sadly again we were not able to take our chances. Palace were able to test Leicesters defence a lot at the start. Then in the 57th minute Leicester got their first goal after Maddison was able to play a ball into the box which was met by the head of Soyuncu. Palace fans were very disappointed.
In the 65th minute there was a three way head injury affecting Cahill, Kouyate and Evans. Even though they were all head injuries nothing serious came of it and thankfully they were all able to continue. There was a penalty shout for Palace in the 70th minute but after a brief VAR check there was nothing wrong with it. Even though we were 1-0 down we still continued to test them throughout the rest of the match.
Our first substitution came in the 75th minute with Meyer replacing Kouyate. Shortly after this Zaha had an attempt on goal but the ball deflected up in the air and Leicester won a free kick. In the 78th minute We made our final substitution bringing Benteke on for Ayew and McCarthy on for McCarthur. In the 85th minute the game had to be paused so that Gary Cahill could receive some treatment on the cut on his head as it had continued to bleed after his earlier incident. Luckily again he was able to still continue playing.
Throughout the whole match the Palace fans were winding Jamie Vardy up about his Wife. This once man in particular was driving me insane and every time it was silent he would shout out "Rooney" and "Snitch" I really don't know what goes through some peoples minds?! In a way I feel like we kind of bring these things on ourselves as Vardy ended up scoring their second goal in the 88th minute. Then in the 92nd minute Leicester hit the post via Chilwell. At this moment many Palace fans began to leave for the Exit.
With the final score being 2-0 to Leicester I actually felt like the result could've been worse considering Leicester had beaten Southampton 9-0 the previous weekend.
After the match we went to the away end so we could try and meet some of the England players. We decided to go straight there this week due to the circumstances at the Man City game but it wasn't as busy. A Palace security guard came over to me and my Carer and said he had noticed that the last home game we hadn't been able to see anyone and so this time he let us past the barrier to the side with a great view. There was nobody in front of me!!!! I then met Ben Chilwell, Harvey Barnes, Hamza Choudhury from the England squads. I also met Jonny Evans, Wilfred Ndidi and Caglar Soyuncu, Ricardo Pereira, Kelechi Ihenacho and legend Kolo Toure. They were all really nice to me considering I was wearing my Palace jacket! I was a little disappointed not to see James Maddison as he is my favourite, but he came out a different side.
Thank you for reading
Ellie X
