Throughout this festive period as we spend time with loved ones, it is important to think about those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

On Christmas morning, somewhere in the foggy northern wilderness, a harmless, unsuspecting child will be unwrapping a Stoke City shirt.

I suppose it’s at least something they can use to dry their eyes following Chung Yong Lee’s dramatic late winner at the weekend.

A draw would have been a fair result in what was an ugly game dominated by erratic winds, but Lee’s delicate long-range effort was worthy of winning any game.

I imagine not closing down the shot will be high on Charlie Adam’s list of regrets, just below leaving Blackpool for Liverpool and not visiting the dentist as a kid.

It’s fair to say that Lee hasn’t offered a huge amount to the team in his limited cameos since signing, but he’ll forever be a hero now regardless of what happens in his future Palace career.

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Scoring like that will do wonders for his confidence and hopefully now he’ll start to show on a regular basis just why Bolton fans were so gutted when he left.

In the build up to kick off on Saturday, a lot of people were concerned that in Yohan Cabaye’s absence there wasn’t a penalty taker in the team, so it was only a matter of time before we were awarded one.

Connor Wickham stepped up and smashed home an identical penalty to Glenn Murray’s at the Britannia last season to get his first Palace goal.

Fingers crossed his injury isn’t too bad because we’re going to need his presence and link up play over the next few weeks.

On Christmas Day last year we were 17th in the table.

The year before that we were one place lower. This year we’re level on points with fourth place and only nine points off top.

Leicester’s dominance has meant that the achievements of the likes of Palace and Watford have slipped under the radar to an extent, but people need to realise that this isn’t a fluke anymore and all three sides have a lot more to give.

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Bournemouth looked dead and buried a couple of weeks ago but they’ve won three in a row and could prove to be a potential banana skin if we take them lightly.

With Josh King likely to still be out injured, Glenn Murray will probably start and I’d like to congratulate him in advance for his inevitable hat-trick against us.

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It’s hard not to like Bournemouth because they play with no fear regardless of the opponent and despite having had ridiculously bad luck with injuries so far this season, they’ve not felt sorry for themselves and have got on with it with no complaints (watch and learn, Arsenal fans).

With Swansea visiting Selhurst just two days later, it’s going to be a difficult few days and squad rotation will be key, particularly with knocks to Cabaye and Bolasie, two players capable of winning a tight game on their own with a moment of brilliance.

Whilst two wins going in to 2016 would be ideal, that’s a lot to ask Santa for and I’d be delighted with four points from these games, which is certainly achievable but by no means will it be easy.

Have a wonderful Christmas.

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