Crystal Palace 2 Huddersfield Town 0

Premier League

Saturday 30 March 2019

good Luka

The context 

One of a fast diminishing number of League grounds left for John and I to visit. We’d seen Palace over the years at more away games than many of their own fans, but getting tickets here became difficult after they got promoted in 2013. Today’s traditional kick off time – and visitors who were all but relegated – now proved our salvation. 

The history

Welcome to SE25. We’d somehow imagined Croydon would evoke Terry and June’s avenue, with perhaps a glimpse of Captain Darling courting his fianceé Doris before representing the Gentlemen at cricket. Reality proved rather more prosaic. Today’s bland conurbation slinks hopefully around greater London’s more sophisticated coat-tails, emulating only its least attractive features; one of few truly historic buildings, Reeves’ Furniture Store, was destroyed by rioters in 2011.       

Things used to be very different. Victorian Croydon’s population increased fourteen-fold in just sixty years; 250,000 people lived locally by 1920, when Britain’s first international airport opened here and motor workers from the Trojan plant at Purley Way shared these quiet suburbs with City stockbrokers. Many were attracted to the town because of its convenient position between London and Brighton.  

East Croydon railway station had opened during 1841. Extension platforms – known until 1898 as New Croydon – handled London Bridge services until a new terminus, South Croydon, could be built. Most suburban passengers traveled via South Croydon; the eminent composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose house was at nearby Aldwick, unfortunately collapsed there in 1912 and subsequently died.         

East would be extended several more times before 1900. Constantly increasing demands on capacity reflected the town’s growth; six substantial platforms were eventually built, servicing hundreds of trains every day. More recent redevelopment has, however, sadly managed to obliterate all trace of some elegantly simple station buildings originally designed by noted railway architect David Mocatta.

Croydon Aerodrome was treated with greater respect. Modern redelopment has obliterated its mighty runways but some well-proportioned historic buildings survive; they include the world’s first control tower, and a luxurious hotel from which Imperial Airways passengers once departed to four continents. 100,000 people saw Lindbergh visit with the Spirit of St Louis in 1927; Amy Johnson set off from here three years later for her epic flight to Australia.    

Crystal Palace Park had been laid out during 1851. This was named after Joseph Paxton’s enormous cast-iron framed gallery – relocated to Penge Common after the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park – whose massive windows contained 300,000 panes of glass. It formed the centrepiece of extensive public gardens boasting a concert hall, maze, ornamental lakes and more than thirty life-size dinosaur models. 

The journey 

cross purposes

This grey corner of a leafy county feels inaccessible even from the rest of London. Stations triangulate Selhurst Park; going by train wasn’t practical today, though, so we instead confronted urban Surrey’s infamous traffic. Everything actually went smoothly enough – that is, until I left my car on someone’s drive I hadn’t actually rented and then got fined £90 after forgetting to pay the Dartford Crossing toll. 

Flesh and wine

no frills

Tangling with the Met had held us up for thirty irritating minutes. There was consequently no chance to sample any of Thornton Heath’s delightfully tatty fast food shops, but we did at least squeeze in some drinking time. Online reviews promised that the Clifton on Holmesdale Road didn’t welcome tourists; it indeed proved a proper no-frills, old-school boozer – I even got calleed “geezer” – that soon helped smooth our ruffled feathers.  

The game

battling

Relegation battles don’t often produce flowing football. As the visitors had won just three games all season – scoring six goals since Christmas – only one team was realistically battling in this one. The first half generally lived down to expectations, although Huddersfield could have been in front but for a tame Chris Lowe back-post header and alert positioning from Vicente Guaita.

half time

Palace woke up after half time. They went ahead from Luka Milivojevic’s penalty when Juninho Bacuna tripped Wilfried Zaha in the box. Ben Hamer had already saved well from Zaha, whose finishing this afternoon verged on wastefulness; Andros Townsend also came close before Patrick van Aanholt made sure with a crisp cross-shot two minutes from time. This defeat was enough to relegate poor Huddersfield remarkably early in the season.

Teams and goals

Palace: Guaita, Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Dann, van Aanholt, Meyer (McArthur 45), Milivojelic, Schlupp, Townsend (Kouyate 80), Batshuayi (Benteke 73), Zaha. Unused subs: Ward, Hennessey, J.Ayew, Kelly.

Huddersfield: Hamer, Smith, Schindler, Kongolo, Durm, Bacuna (Williams 80), Hogg, Mooy, Pritchard (Stankovic 94), Lowe (Kachunga 80), Grant. Unused subs: Coleman, Hadergjonaj, Daly, Rowe.  

Goals: Palace: Milvojevic 76 (pen), van Aanholt 88

Attendance: 25,193.