Great, Now I Have to Pull My Own Hair Out
Crystal Palace played Aston Villa to a 2-2 draw in the FA Cup yesterday. It was actually pretty darned entertaining football. Unless of course you’re Neil Warnock. Then you’re just pissed off.
With Palace up 2-1, Stiliyan Petrov scored off a corner in the 87th to earn Villa the replay.
The problem is the corner probably never should have been given.
“It’s a disgrace,” said Warnock as he channeled his inner Drogba. “The ball comes off [Nathan] Delfouneso and the officials wait to see which way they should give it… and it’s a Premier League team losing 2-1, so we’ll give it to them.”
Ah perhaps Warnock is jonesing for a vacation with comments like that.
That was really just the warm-up. The really good stuff followed when Warnock spoke of his post-match chat with the linesman. “I spoke with Mr. Massey and what he said was, ‘When I watch it at home, if I was wrong then I may be suspended.’ Well, I don’t feel any sympathy if he is suspended. I hope it’s for a long time. Does he realize what it means to a club that can’t afford this, that or the other but who are giving everything only to be let down by, how should I put it, incompetence?”
It was a poor call on the corner. But A) around the 70th minute Palace were awarded a corner on what should have been a Villa goal kick and I don’t hear Warnock complaining about that B) If you don’t want to conceded the leveler then maybe mark a guy as he comes toward your near post on the corner and, more importantly C) The blow call didn’t cost Palace anything in the very real financial sense of the word and the replay is like having Mattew Lesko turn up Selhurst Park.
Palace is currently holding a tidy little £34M debt and have to meet an £800,000 a week month wage bill. If the replay is televised (likely), it will mean something around a £400,000 payout to the club, which could go a good way toward helping the club stay afloat in the near term.
The likely alternative, a win followed by the resulting draw pairing them with the winner of the Reading/West Brom tie would have put them in a situation where they are praying for ITV to televise a match that nobody wants to watch.
This also ignores the fact that Villa put the Palace goal under siege in the last 15-20 minutes of the match and had two sure goals somehow turned away. With about seven minutes left (with remaining normal and the five minutes of stoppage), it’s quite possible Villa would have found a way to equalize without the bogus corner.
Anyway, all of this nonsense is taking away from what might be the highlight of the weekend: Darren Ambrose’s screaming free kick to put Palace up 2-1.
F**k Warnock. Great goal by Ambrose though, thx for posting
Yep, hell of a screamer.
Colin Wanker is the loudest, most prickish manager in football history. Always whinging. Palace first goal was from a corner and same lino allowed it taken while outside the d.
Teach your players how to defend Colin and shut up with the ‘woe is me’ bulls**t.
Palace’s wage bill is 800,000/wk? Jesus know wonder they’re bankrupt.
Technically, Palace’s first goal should not have counted, as the ball was not in the corner quadrant for the corner kick.
/Picking the tiniest of nits
wow. know wonder. no wonder. it’s Monday.
Oops. Per month. Per week. Same difference. Post updated.