Crystal Palace vs Brighton

Hello everyone,

Hope your all well.

On Monday 16th of December I attended Crystal Palace vs Brighton at Selhurst Park. I went with my PA Vicki, Nan and Auntie. It was another evening game but this time the kick off was at 7.45pm. Brighton are one of our biggest rivals so a lot was expected from the fans. There’s normally some violence at rival matches but we didn’t see any, this may be because we are the opposite side to the away fans so don’t go near them. Roy’s squad was very limited due to us having many injuries so he had to turn to the youth in certain areas, even though they didn’t all play it would of definitely given them the experience.

When we arrived it was raining and it continued throughout the match. I’m not sure if I was imagining it but I was pretty sure that the shelter over where I sit had been extended as I wasn’t getting as wet but nobody believed/agreed me so who knows 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

The game started at 7.45 and there was instant dominance from Brighton, this was shown by then getting a very early corner in the 3rd minute but thankfully nothing came from it. The corner was taken in front of the home fans so as you can probably expect there was a lot of booing and this continued every time Brighton was in their end. The Palace fans came to the game in numbers and didn’t stop singing throughout the whole match. Brighton’s dominance continued and in the 9th minute one of their players were very clos but thankfully it hit the side netting. In the opening stages of the game Palace were finding it very hard to keep the ball for a long period of time. In the 20th VAR was called upon for a possible penalty to Brighton after Riedewald ‘clipped’ a Brighton player in the box, VAR decided it wasn’t enough for a pen and they were awarded a corner, a cheer rang around Selhurst park after the decision was given. The corner ended with Guita being able to make a comfortable save. Our first opportunity to get into a scoring position didn’t come until the 28th minute, this was when Ayew was able to get down the right and win a throw in for us. Again we weren’t able to keep hold of the ball for long and it ended up back in Brighton’s possession. The first yellow card of the game came in the 35th minute and it was for Benteke after a foul on Dunk, this was the only yellow we picked up in the game. There wasn’t much more action in the first half other then Brighton having a shot in the 41st minute but thankfully it led to nothing.

The first half was very poor from Palace and we were all hoping they would sort themselves out before the second half. Palace made a half time substitution replacing an injured Riedewald with James McCarty.

The second half started very quickly for us, we were able to get out first shot on target, it came via Benteke he was able to cross the ball aiming for Zaha in the middle and it somehow ended up smashing against the far post, that would of been crazy if it went in!! Sadly Palace’s momentum didn’t last and in the 54th minute Brighton scored making it 1-0 to them! The goal came from a corner which we weren’t able to clear enough :(

Palace were able to win there first corner in the 66th minute but disappointing nothing game of it. Even though we were losing the Palace fans still showed their support staying loud and proud. Our second sub came in the 68th minute with Max Meyer coming on to replace Kouyate. We had an attempt on goal in the 72nd minute but it was very weak so was easily saved by the Brighton keeper. This quickly led to another attempt but this time it went behind for a corner. We were able to take advantage of our momentum and the ball made its way to Zaha who was able to cut inside into the box and beat the keeper at his near post making it 1-1!!!!! Selhurst park erupted!!! You could see how happy Wilf was that he scored, he went to celebrate with the fans in the Holmesdale end who were all very happy for him and the team. The final 15 minutes Palace looked like a completely different team, if only they played like that all the time. We had so many chances to go above we definitely gave Brighton a fright. After a whole game of being dominated in the final 20 minutes we were definitely the dominant team! We were really unlucky not to score again after the amount of chances we created, it was chance, after chance, after chance for us which was really nice too see after a tough 70 minutes. There was 3 minutes added on at the end of the match and Brighton had 1 final chance but thankfully our defence was able to deal with it. The game ended 1-1 and we will take the point after a very tough game.

As soon as Roy bought Max Meyer on he instantly changed the game for the better. I don’t understand why Roy isn’t starting him cause he brings so much energy and creativity to the game which is what we’re massively lacking in my opinion.

Match stats:

• Palace had a total of 34.8% possession, Brighton had 65.2%

• Palace had a total of 11 shots with 4 on target.

• Brighton had 15 shots with 3 on target.

This was our last game before Christmas and we will return to Selhurst Park on Boxing Day against West Ham.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas!

Thank you for reading

Ellie X