After 50 matches, three managers, 76 goals, 66 points, and a total of 34 players in the red-and-blue stripes, all the efforts in Crystal Palace's season have amounted to zero.

Mid-table tedium seemed a distant possibility when Steve Bruce's high-flying Eagles were taking on all comers in Division One way back in August and September; but the Palace's eventual decline to tenth in the league should be seen as less a result of managerial upheaval and more the place where the combined talents in the side deserved to finish.

The Steve Bruce era began with plenty of optimism, a team full of pace and good touch looking to accelerate the ball along the wings for Clinton Morrison and Dougie Freedman, with the young Julian Gray really beginning to establish himself as a fans' favourite playing wide left. But even the Eagles' chirpy boss admitted it was a Jekyll and Hyde side, as capable of collapsing against ordinary passing sides such as Portsmouth and Nottingham Forest as it was capable of tearing apart defensively poor teams such as Wimbledon and Grimsby Town. A humiliating home defeat against Millwall in which Steve Claridge netted for the umpteenth time against his former club, seats being thrown in the Arthur Wait stand and a thoroughly unwelcome set of visiting fans proved to be the nadir for supporters and players alike.

But Bruce's boys bounced back, and strung together a fine run of results that would have the Eagles storming to the top of the table. Seven back-to-back wins crystalised Palace's promotion push, and the belief surrounding the players boiled over at Molineux, when despite their goal being under siege for long periods of the tie, Palace held firm and snatched a win with a wonderful long-range goal from their American star in stripes, Jovan Kirovski.

Such form, however, came at a price Birmingham City, unhappy with their manager Trevor Francis' failure to gain promotion to the Premier League, ditched him and made clear their intention to poach the Palace boss. For Steve Bruce, it was an offer he couldn't refuse, but to the delight of football lovers everywhere, his betrayal was not the cynical skip from dressing-room to dressing-room he had envisaged; Palace chairman Simon Jordan drew out the move to make it as painful as possible for the manager who had turned and fled.

Steve Bruce's Palace seemed destined for success at this early stage of the season, with Freedman and Morrison scoring for fun in an excellent partnership that would be unrivalled in the division. However, the team had yet to play four of the nine teams who would ultimately finish above them in the table, and were put to the sword by three of the others; so perhaps the early-season optimism can be seen as partly the result of a serendipitous fixture list. Nevertheless, the momentum it created allowed Bruce to motivate his players well, and make them believe they could catapult themselves to the title, against teams who had bigger squads, more talented stars, better defences and more cash.

Palace stalwart Steve Kember took over while Jordan searched for a new manager, but it seemed the players were stung by their boss's departure. The defeats piled up despite Kember's best efforts to keep the team stable, and losses at Coventry and Gillingham as well as a draw with Walsall proved that the team Bruce and Kember had built was more fragile than the early season results had seemed to portend.

And so to Trevor Francis, who took over the reins at the club his Birmingham replacement had abandoned. His more conservative style of football has found fewer fans than Bruce's cavalier attacking play, and the new Palace supremo has presided over some truly awful defeats, including a mauling by Grimsby Town and a home hammering from lowly Watford. Yet the boss is quietly confident about the future, tinkering with his squad and bringing together some useful players to assemble a team to prepare for the promotion push next season.

His tenure, though, coincided with a dip in form from Palace that would eventually take his side away from the playoffs. The double loss of Kit Symons and Tony Popovic both of whom played superbly at the back for the Eagles, and who were in the process of forming a solid partnership in defence was a real blow, as it meant not only that the defensive shape was compromised, but that Palace's inspirational Hayden Mullins was forced back from the midfield role he was carving out as his own, in order to cover for the pair.

Nevertheless, Francis' arrival polarised the fans unlike any previous managerial appointment in recent years; he still has time to win over the fans, but the soft-spoken manager, always quietly confident without ever seeming truly bullish, is more likely to do that through results from his team than through his own bravado. But that's probably just the way he likes it.

In the meantime, Palace fans must also look long and hard at themselves, and their attitude towards Ade Akinbiyi. The club's record signing has hardly set the side alight since he arrived, coming in as he has done at a difficult stage of the season, with his confidence dented after a poor spell at Leicester - but that is no excuse for the disgraceful and moronic abuse he has suffered at the hands of his own so-called supporters. It is to the credit of this dignified and articulate footballer that he has not sent some of the hatred back towards the fans. What gives these people the right to feel so hateful towards the capricious attitude of Steve Bruce, when they are even more fickle, demanding instant success and pillorying their own players?

So Palace, who began the league season in ebullient mood, ended it with their heads down, as they had to watch West Bromwich Albion rise up into the promised land of Premier League wealth, success and guaranteed television money. Next year it will be harder, and for every year harder still, but promotion can still happen, if the manager brings his squad together and plays in a style that can bring consistent victory and maybe if the fans got behind their side rather than sitting in silence or booing their own players.

In the cups, meanwhile, Palace began brightly but flattered to deceive. In the Worthington Cup surely this club's best chance of glory an under-strength side took to the field at the Leyton Orient's Matchroom Stadium way back in balmy August, with Tommy Black playing up front alongside Clinton Morrison. The Division Two underdogs cruised into the lead through some fine finishing, but once Palace, and Morrison, got into gear, the Eagles cruised past their first hurdle. Everton at Goodison Park would be a trickier prospect, but Palace held their own against the Premier side, taking them to extra-time and coming through on penalties, Morrison slotting home the decisive kick to delight Palace's faithful followers and making the journey back to Selhurst for 4am well worth the effort. Up to Hillsborough, then, for the third round, and a well-organised Sheffield Wednesday side thwarted Palace; this time the penalty lottery didn't pay out in Palace's favour.

The FA Cup consisted only of a single match but a fine weekender for the travelling south Londoners in beautiful Newcastle. Palace were outgunned and outpaced throughout, but Francis' battlers acquitted themselves finely, and if it hadn't been for a suspect offside decision against Morrison, the tie would have been much closer. As it was, the moment of the match was Alex Kolinko's incredible save as he sprinted from his left touchline back into goal, and turned in mid-air to steer the ball away from his goal; a superlative manoeuvre that even had Bobby Robson praising the Latvian stopper to the hilt.

May 1, 2002 12:30