Villa draw at Crystal Palace with Dave Woodhall watching.
I’ve often said that if Villa could play every home match midweek under the lights we’d be unbeatable. Then again, if we did the Gods of Football would make up for it by having us play every away match against Crystal Palace.
I don’t have anything against Palace as such, they’re just a horrible club, in a horrible place, at the end of a horrible journey. The fact that they invariably beat us doesn’t help, neither does their Ultras group, who if they want to act like supporters on the continent should go there, and stay.
Just why Villa have got such a diabolical record against Palace defies all logical thinking. It’s not that they’re better than us, or have any particularly outstanding-on-their-day players. They’re an 
anonymous, mid-table outfit and that’s the height of their ambition. Yet they don’t just beat Villa in the same way that Manchester United, to name the most obvious, beat us. Against that lot a succession of Villa teams have always managed to come up with new and unique ways of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Not so Palace – they invariably outplay us, winning by a good few goals to nil.
The reason I’ve spent so long going over past failures is that no matter how bad the memories might be, it’s still more interesting than anything that happened on the pitch during Wednesday night’s latest Tales of the Expected. Palace had a few players out while Villa were missing, by my reckoning, five who would probably have been in the matchday squad although there was at least the welcome sight of one of them, Pau Torres, on the bench. It was Palace who were said to have a depleted squad; Villa got on with it as we always do.
There wasn’t a great amount to say about what happened during the match. Villa had most of the possession but precious few real chances. Ollie Watkins could have done better with one early in the first half and certainly should have done better when he hit the woodwork, while Morgan Rogers could also have got a late winner. Apart from that the only real event of any note was Emiliano Martinez going off at half-time to be replaced by Marco Bizot. He might be the best keeper in the world, but Martinez is starting to look like the sort of player who will cry off for the slightest reason.
But in the final analysis it was a point more than we usually get at Selhurst. Once again the other results largely went our way and the gap between Villa and fourth place is still handy, although the number of clubs bunched below that spot means we’ve got to keep on winning.
And finally, the evening was rounded off with the sad news that an old friend of mine, Brian Green, has died at the age of 86. Brian came from a long line of Villa supporters and has made sure that there’s at least another couple of generations following in his considerable footsteps. He was always on hand with help and advice for anyone who asked and will be missed by everyone who knew him.
