Southampton vs Crystal Palace away

Hi everyone,

Hope your all well and happy new year. 

Sorry this has taken so long to post but I’ve been really busy doing revision for my upcoming mocks/exams. 

On Saturday 28th of December 2019 I went to my final match of the year with my PA Vicki  and it was another away game. This time it was Southampton Vs Palace at St Mary’s. It was my first non London away game of the season but it wasn’t too far, it took us about 2 hours to get there. My mum had previously sorted out parking for us but it wasn’t on the stadium premises, it wasn’t very well sign posted so it took us a while to find where to park. After waiting for about 5-10 minutes in the car park area a bus arrived to take us to the stadium. The bus had 2 journeys one at 1pm and the other at 2pm (an hour before kick off) we missed the first one so had to get the second. When walking over to get on the bus we realised we were the only Palace fans and the rest were all home fans, this was definitely an experience 😂. We arrived at the stadium at about 2:30 and we had to walk round to the away bit. We had to pick up our tickets from the ticket office along with all the other Palace fans, my PA Vicki was asked to leave me to go and collect them but because she can’t leave me the disability steward offered to go and collect them for us, this was very helpful as there was loads of people around. Once he got them the same man showed us to our seat, we had a seat on pitchside behind the goal in front of all the other Palaces fans. 

We had to make 2 changes in the line up bringing in James McCarthy & Jairo Riedewald in for Patrick Van-Aanholt & Cheikhou Kouyate who both got injured in our Boxing Day 2-1 win over West Ham. 

The game started at 3pm and we won a very early free kick in the 3rd minute after a foul on Ayew, Milivojevic sent it into the box but the Southampton defence was able to deal with it. In the early stages of the match Southampton were unable to keep hold of the ball for a long period of time but this was good for us. In the 8th minute Southampton had a corner which was taken by James Ward-Prowse in front of the palace fans, he was met by a lot of booing after getting Zaha sent off in the same fixture last season. 

In the 15th minute Zaha was able to put the bal through the legs of a Southampton defender straight into the path of Meyer who was able to power the ball into the net! We all thought it was 1-0 to us but VAR strikes once again, apparently Zaha was offside in the build up of the goal canceling out the goal. After looking at many replays he was NOT offside so VAR got another decision wrong!! This is so frustrating as it’s supposed to be making the game more fair but it’s doing the opposite. 

In the 24th minute I’m pretty sure all the palace fans hearts were in their mouths after a POOR pass from Sakho which allowed Redmond to ping it into the box and where it was met by Ings, thankfully Tomkins was able to make a vital clearance giving Palace a lifeline. The first booking came in the 33rd minute for Luka Milivojevic after giving away a foul, Luka’s been getting a lot of yellows recently he definitely needs to calm down in matches. Southampton came close to scoring again in the 37th minute after another mistake by us but thankfully it remained 0-0. Ayew had a late chance in the 43rd minute but it was a weak shot straight into the keepers hands.  There was one minute added on but no important action. It was a very entertaining first half even though there were no goals counted.  

During half time we went to check the disabled toilets and once again we were disappointed as it was a standard toilet with hand rails and a padded back rest, this would be helpful for more mobile disabled people but for me personally it wasn’t useful because I need a bed and a hoist. My PA wanted a coffee but when we went into the canteen area it was packed with palace fans, the same man that had previously helped us get in offered to go and get one for her so we didn’t have to mix in the crowds, this was really nice of him and he bought it out to our seat. We wanted to thank him personally so found out his name was Gary.

The second half Palace were shooting towards us and it started with an instant Southampton chance but thankfully Guaita was able to punch it away. We won a free kick on the edge of the box after a foul on McArthur, Milivojevic stepped up to take it and it was an amazing delivery into the box where it was met by a brilliant header by Tomkins to give us the lead for the second time, this time there was no VAR disruption. It was now 1-0 Palace. The away end erupted as the team ran over to the corner to celebrate. This then led to Palace being more confident for the next part of the game.  

In the 59th minute there was a penalty shout from where we was sitting it looked like a pen after Ward-Prowse gets a foot in front of Meyer who goes over but the on field ref and VAR said no pen. 

There was another injury scare from Riedewald who went down clutching his hip, he was in the team replacing an injured Van-Aanholt meaning there wasn’t a replacement on the bench, thankfully he was fine to continue.  

In the 70th minute Guaita once again made a save to keep the game 1-0. It wasn’t till the 72nd minute that Palace got their first corner but nothing came of it. 

In the 74th minute the worst happened and Kelly tried to play the ball back too Tomkins but Ings was in the way and was able to get through one on one to goal and score for the home side, making it 1-1. This definitely changed the atmosphere as the saints gained more confidence. Once again Guaita made a save after Kelly allowed his man to shoot. After this Southampton dominated the game and had many chances to steal the game.  In the 83rd minute we made our first and only substitution bringing on Cheikhou Kouyate for Max Meyer. Also in the same minute Guaita went down injured but thankfully he was fine to carry on. 

There was 4 minute added on at the end of the match, we got a got a free kick which Tomkins met but sadly it only went into the hands of the Southampton keeper. That was the final piece of action and it ended with both teams sharing the points in a 1-1 draw. 

Palace would definitely feel they deserved more after a wrong VAR decision and mistake at the back. 

After the game we had to make our way back to the bus which left 30 minutes after the final whistle. On the way round we went past the Palace bus which we waited at for about 5-10 minutes while I had my feed flushed but no one came out in time. The bus was a lot busier on the way back then the way there and again we were the only Palace fans 😬😂. The bus driver was very friendly and accommodating to us. Once we got back to the car we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us.

Match stats: 

• Palace had a total of 40.1% possession, Southampton had 59.1%

• Palace had a total of 5 shots with 2 on target. 

• Southampton had 14 shots with 5 on target. 

Southampton

Southampton

Southampton

Our seat

Their disabled toilet

Their disabled toilets

Also I thought I’d briefly add in about our recent match against Derby. It was on Sunday 5th of January so my first game of the year and it was at Selhurst park, I went with my grandad.  The game determined who went through to round 4 of the FA cup. Palace put out our first team minus Guaita and Zaha but Hennessey and young lad Pierrick who impressed in the previous game against Norwich came into the team instead. Sadly Palace didn’t play well at all in the game and the final result was 1-0 to Derby meaning we are out of the FA cup. Luka Milivojevic got sent off for head butting a player and he will receive a 3 match ban but I’m not too sure if that counts in the prem. It was this decision that made the ref go to the VAR screen to make his own decision for the first time in English football so we got into a record for a bad decision 😂.  The week of the match was mental health awareness week as part of this there was a campaign in all FA cup games which was encouraging fans to ‘Take A Minute’ to think about the importance of looking after their own wellbeing. The games were delayed by 1 minute to encourage fans to join. 

It’s also January now which means the transfer window is open, hopefully we get some good deals and untimely keep hold of Zaha! 

Thank you for reading 

Ellie X