Cup exploits a sign of how far Palace have progressed (From News Shopper)

Cup exploits a sign of how far Palace have progressed

1:11pm Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Crystal Palace

EAGLES columnist SAM ROSS was at the Cardiff City Stadium last night and reflects on what might have been as he makes his way home.

ONE thing was different in the build up to last night's cup exit to Cardiff than any other League Cup fixture this season - we weren’t the underdogs.

The recurring spirit was outstanding again but it seemed the pressure got to Palace early on.

With seven minutes gone, Palace fans’ worst fear of the night happened when Cardiff took an early lead after Anthony Gardner headed into his own net and the game plan of keeping a clean sheet was out the window. It took us 20 minutes to settle into the game, just as it did in the first leg at Selhurst, but one major problem was we weren’t producing anything ourselves.

We looked dangerous when Sean Scannell was introduced for Chris Martin and straight away the 21-year-old was involved, setting up Wilfried Zaha for Palace’s best chance of the night.

But that - like all of our five shots - was off target. Two minutes later came Paddy McCarthy's sending off, which however harsh it looks compared to some of the other tackles on the night, is typical McCarthy.

Kenny Miller was posing no threat as he picked up the ball just inside the Palace half before the Eagles captain needlessly lunged in.

Then all of a sudden Palace are the underdogs, just as we like it, and the desire and spirit shown by the players was outstanding, least of all capped by Zaha, whose brilliant block denied Cardiff from snatching victory at the end of normal time.

Now the game plan was simple, defend your hearts out and catch them on the counter attack, which we did but Jermaine Easter disappointingly failed to get a shot away when through on goal.

As the game entered extra-time and Palace fans continued to sing their hearts out, Freedman cleverly held his team talk directly in front of the away end.

The boss clearly understood his players needed to show even more spirit than they previously had and how big the role of what was now the '11th man' was to play in that.

Palace’s defence were resilient throughout extra-time and when the supposed 'King' Kenny missed his spot kick, Eagles fans were beginning to believe once more.

But poor penalties from Easter, Scannell and Jonathon Parr, not forgetting a well taken effort by Mile Jedinak, sealed our fate.

Palace fans won't need to be reminded of how far the team has come since administration two years ago.

But it was truly fitting that the song playing out as the fans left the Cardiff City stadium was Bob Marley's Three Little Birds with the lyric ‘don't worry about a thing’.

It is a song Palace fans know only too well as they battled to secure Championship survival at the end of last season.

There is certainly nothing to worry about right now and further exciting times are to come.

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