Internet Football Ground Guide - Away Days, Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace

Selhurst Park - Crystal Palace
Monday, January 2nd, 2006
Vs Leicester City, Championship League, 3pm
By Susan Bowen

Despite Leicester City lying beleaguered near the bottom of the table I decided to take my mum to see this New Year Holiday Monday fixture in south-west London. To be honest I had no pre-conceived ideas over what to expect apart from that there had been some controversy over the extortionate pricing of away tickets in the notorious Arthur Waite Stand which houses the away supporters along one side. By all accounts it still has wooden seating towards the rear and a premium game ticket would set you back normally Ł35 in the Championship. However, on this occasion, Leicester City as the opposition meant that it was categorised strangely as a Category C fixture (the cheapest), despite Leicester's pedigree and status, meaning us Leicester fans only had to fork out a mere Ł20, which seemed reasonable.

I spent the festive period with my family in East Anglia and we decided on the day that we would get the train from Cambridge early to Kings Cross. We spent much of the morning taking advantage of the sales in Convent Garden, had some lunch in Leicester Square (aptly named), before heading for Victoria station via tube to get a train to Norwood Junction. There happens to be two nearby stations and we plumbed for this one (a 30 minute train journey from Victoria), the other is the same distance allegedly being around a 15 minute walk from the ground. When we arrived at Norwood Junction we were greeted by mounted police, which seemed slightly heavy-handed and we followed the milling crowd as it meandered down the main road to the ground.

On first sight, I thought that Selhurst Park was rather obscure, seemingly below the level of the road that we were standing on therefore giving the appearance that the stadium was rather non-descript, tiny and compact. On entrance to the infamous Arthur Waite Stand we waded treacherously down the icy steps into an archaic open and very congested concourse before weaving through the crowd to gain access to Section X where we were seated. Leicester as part of their allocation were given both Section X and Y to a total of around 2,300 tickets. The stand is terribly antiquated and a throwback to traditional stands, which have a low gradient and a mixture of wooden and plastic seats, the latter making up the first 25 rows. For a miniscule stand it seems to never end with around 50 rows of seating and the worst aspect was not the poor view, but rather the poorly positioned support pillar, 10 rows back in the middle of Section X. This was viewing of the old variety and I would certainly begrudge paying anything more than the Ł20 tariff that I had to part with for an impeded view.

The ground slowly filled and in the last 10 minutes before kick-off there was a mad frenzy to get to seats in both the home and away sections. The Holmesdale End is an impressive, two-tiered structure with a delightful curved roof to the left of the away fans and is where the majority of Palace fans reside during the game. This towered above the three smaller stands that comprised Selhurst Park, the Main Stand being of the same style as the one in which we were sitting in and The Croydon Advertiser Stand behind the other goal opposite looked rather inept with a small bank of seating and perched above two tiers of corporate balconies. The ground looked pretty full on kick-off and later I realised that a crowd of 20,000 had gathered, of which 1,600 were from Leicester.

As the game started the atmosphere created inside the ground was breathtaking. The Leicester fans were sandwiched between two vociferous bands of Palace supporters, a large grouping in the lower-tier of the Holmesdale Stand closest to the away supporters and a smaller, but seemingly louder group towards the rear of the Arthur Waite Stand at the junction between the home and away supporters. Despite the poor quality of the stand and the fact that the seating was dreadful and the view dour, the din created was incredible. The first-half was evenly competed and the Leicester hordes had their opportunities to sing and our glorious chant of "Leicester, Leicester!" was roared with deafening approval to the bemusement of the Palace faithful. The acoustics of the stand itself are simply superb and when a shot flies goalward the gasp from the Leicester fans sounded thunderous from inside the stand. The Palace fans have a fantastic ditty with the words sung so loud that they were inaudible bouncing strangely to and from the Holmesdale End to the Arthur Waite Stand in turn.

The entertainment factor in the first half was limited and in the second half it would only get worse. Leicester failed to make any headway after substituting Iain Hume who made way for Mark De Vries. With Leicester's attacking options looking impotent and their defence being continuously stretched and tested it was only a matter of time before the tide would turn and Leicester's dogged and resolute refusal to capitulate would crumble. Andy Johnson became the villain to the Leicester supporters with his theatrics as well as the incompetent linesman (assistant referee allegedly). Palace were awarded a penalty in which Johnson duly missed to the relief of the Leicester faithful and he became the target of abuse, as well as, adulation from the Palace supporters. However, 3 minutes later Selhurst Park erupted when they finally took the lead prompting some deafening cries from the Holmesdale End when the P.A announcer declared who scored. Leicester finally wilted and crumbled under the bombardment, leaking a second near the end to further rub salt into the wounds. Leicester and their supporters were dejected and despondent in utter contrast to the jubilant and ecstatic Palace fans who look good promotion candidates.

As we headed back up the stand, which was rapidly deserting, a few die-hards were echoing the sentiment we all had, "Levein Out!" was the chant. Unfortunately, we were being drowned out by the music over the tannoy and another unique crowd characteristic of Selhurst is the fact that the Palace fans in the lower-tier of the Holmesdale seemed to be making a humming sound as their players left the pitch and after the final one had left a shout of "Ole!" could be discerned. Palace fans are certainly passionate about their team in a non-aggressive and intimidating manner.

My mum and I quickly melted into the growing crowd outside the stadium and followed the heaving masses towards the station, chancing on a train to a different station stop to what we intended, Tower Bridge, which in hindsight is better than Victoria. Within 3 hours we had managed to evade the throng, navigated the train, tube and finally train again and be back in Cambridge to write this report and ponder a possible relegation. We are too big to go down, aren't we? I can hear the sniggering from our Midlands rivals already, Nottingham Forest are living proof that anything is possible.

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