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Full Record of Spurs -v- Crystal Palace

Prem         Pl  W   D   L  For-Ag  Pts
Home         3   0   2   1   2 - 3   2
Away         3   2   1   0   7 - 3   7
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Total(Prem)  6   2   3   1   9 - 6   9
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Football Lge
Home(Div 1)  9   5   2   2   14 -6   12
Away(Div 1)  9   5   3   1   16 -9   14
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Total(Div 1)18  10   5   3   30 -15  26
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Football Lge  
Home(Div 2)  1   0   1   0    2 -2    1
Away(Div 2)  1   1   0   0    2 -1    2
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Total(Div 2) 2   1   1   0    4 -3    3
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Total(Prem)  6   2   3   1    9 -6    9
Total(Div 1)18  10   5   3   30 -15  26
Total(Div 2) 2   1   1   0    4 -3    3
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Grand Total 26  13   9   4   43 -24  38
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Spurs

A. Villa   1-0   Spurs
Spurs      2-0   M'brough
Blackburn  0-1   Spurs
Man City   0-1   Spurs
Spurs      5-1   S'hampton
Norwich    0-2   Spurs

Crystal Palace

C. Palace  0-2   Newcastle
S'hampton  2-2   C. Palace
C. Palace  0-1   Charlton
C. Palace  0-0   Blackburn
Man Utd    5-2   C. Palace
C. Palace  0-1   P'tsmouth

Pos            P  W  D  L  F - A   GD  Pts
7   Spurs     19  8  4  7  23- 18   5  28
18  C. Palace 19  3  5 11  19- 30 -11  14

Spurs face Crystal Palace in the second of their festive fixtures, and it is quite a co-incidence that ten years ago, when Spurs had one of their rare successful Premiership Christmasses, they also played Palace and Norwich. We have not faced them in League action since the 97-98 season, when Palace were last relegated, finishing bottom of the pile with just 33 points, whilst Spurs, having struggled throughout the season, finally managed 14th place. That was the season when Gerry Francis resigned, and Christian Gross took the reins, with Chris Hughton also involved. Gross had not become fully involved when we last played Palace at home on 24th November, 1997. Palace won that game thanks to a Neil Shipperley goal. Shipperly is on the Palace books again, but tends to feature at Reserve level, having skippered them to Promotion last year, and having spells with Nottingham Forest, Barnsley and Wimbledon since that 97-98 season. As can be seen above, Spurs have yet to manage a home victory against Crystal Palace.

Team spirit is one of Palace's greatest strengths, led of course by Ian Dowie. When we played Palace in the FA Cup last January, our opponents were still in the lower reaches in Division One, and yet they went on that marvellous run to finally secure the winning Play-Off place against West Ham.

Team spirit has come to the fore for Spurs in recent weeks, as players and Head Coach share hugs, and the squad learns to handle the arrival of rotation at White Hart Lane! Mind you, there's nothing like a winning run to keep the spirits high!

You need quality as well though to succeed, and it seems that finally some Spurs cream is rising to the upper echelons of the table, although we must keep a sense of balance and be prepared for the knocks which will surely come, maybe sooner than we want. Palace have significant quality in the shape of Andy Johnson, headed by few in the Premiership scorers' table, with 9 to his name.

Palace have not won a Premiership game in 9 now, since late October, when they beat Birmingham away. After some respite in October, when they gained their three Premiership wins and dragged themselves out of the bottom three, Dowie's side have dropped back into the relegation zone and will be desperate to acquit themselves well tomorrow, having lost 4 of their last 6 games, including the Boxing Day defeat at Selhurst Park by Portsmouth.

Martin Jol is not under-estimating this opposition, and it looks like he will field Jermain Defoe in the starting line-up, and maybe give the team one or two other tweaks in an effort to achieve their 6th consecutive win to send people scurrying to the record books again!

I'll take Spurs to win this one quite convincingly, but Palace may get a goal. I think we'll get three though!

COME ON YOU SPURS!

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