VENUE #75 CRYSTAL PALACE Selhurst Park

BARCLAYS PREMIERSHIP

7th May 2016


@ Selhurst Park, London

Ground Capacity:  26,309

Kick Off:  15:00

Entry Fee:  £35

Programme:  £3.50

Venue #75

     Today was the story of two number sixteen's one wiry old midfielder in Stoke colours named Charlie Adam who opened the scoring and a young striker from Crystal Palace name Dwight Gayle who notched a brace to equalise and win the game for the team in blue and red.

     The game started quite brightly and was quite open at times with both teams making scoring chances.  The home fans were buzzing with excitement mainly caused by their trip to Wembley in two weeks time in the FA cup final against Manchester United.  It wasn't long though before the mood change when in the 26th minute some fine play between Giannelli Inbula and Marko Arnautovic saw the latter play a well weighted ball through the Palace defence for Charlie Adam to curl a shot across Wayne Hennessey in the Eagles goal and into the bottom far side of the net.

     This brought the Stoke fans to life as well as quietening the home fans the Potters support always have a presence where ever they go and they got behind and lifted their side who were content with keeping eleven men behind the ball which frustrated Palace who just couldn't seem to find a way through.  I watched Stoke At the Britannia a couple of seasons ago against Norwich and they won that game 1-0 with a goal from Charlie Adam and I was wondering if that fete was to be repeated here.

     Two minutes after the break and my fears were dispelled when Yannick Bolasie wriggled is way through the Stoke defence and seemed to be tripped in the box but referee Kevin Friend waved play on as the ball fell to Gayle who stroked the ball past Jacob Haugaard into the bottom left hand corner of the net. 

     Twenty five minutes later and the home side were ahead when Connor Wickham was brought down by Ryan Shawcross 25 yards out from the goal line.  Up stepped the Crystal Gayle to the plate and struck a mighty fine free kick straight into the top left hand corner of the net leaving the home support in raptures and with cries of glad all over and we're going to Wembley they saw their team hold on to victory and secure another season in the top flight. 

     

     

     Selhurst Park is a mixture of new and old holding 26,309 spectators all seated at the max. with the oldest part, the Main stand dating back to 1924 when the ground opened.  Single tiered and fully covered this stand is in need of modification as there are roof supporting pillars that make viewing difficult if seated behind them and also, as you can imagine being 92 years old it is showing signs of decay in many parts not fitting for an English Premiership side although there has been some modification in the nineties toward the rear of the stand and there has been some new seats fitted quite recently although they are quite close together not much room for legs if you're 6 foot plus.  The stand can now seat  6,163 supporters.
     Underneath the stand which you have to pass through either coming in or going out is a bar which has a very tiny outlet which serves food and hot/cold drinks which is manned by two people the same as the bar, God knows how they manage to keep the customers satisfied if they ever get a rush on at half time people would be returning to their seats to find the match has ended.  The toilets in this bar are very small and not adequate. 

     Across the pitch is the Arthur Wait stand, capacity 9,754 and is another single tiered fully covered construction which is slightly newer than the main stand built in 1969.  This stand also has supporting pillars and is showing it's age and is where 2,600 away fans can view the game.

     The Holmesdale Road stand behind the goal is a big two tiered affair built in the mid 90's with a grand total of 8,147 seats lower tier holding 5,341 spectators and the upper 2,806 which overhangs the lower with wind shields either side.  This is the newest part of the stadium and the most impressive with most the home supporters taking advantage of this grand structure.

     At the other end of the pitch is the Whitehorse Lane end also known as the Croydon Advertiser family stand which has an unusual look as it's got 24 executive boxes added to the rear.  This stand used to be an open terrace until Sainsbury's purchased some of the land in the eighties and built a supermarket which is still there today.  Now it's a fully covered and seated stand that can hold 2,245 people.



     The club shop is across the road from the main stand on the outside of the ground and is just a small portacabin which has a guy allowing a small amount of people in from the queue at a time as people exit the shop.  I don't know how the staff manage in this place either for the heat was horrendous I was only in there for around 15 minutes and the sweat was running rivers out of me, I was glad to get out of there when I did as I don't think I could have lasted another minute.

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