FIRST DIVISION PLAY-OFF PREVIEW
What an irony that Palace and West Ham will contest, arguably, the biggest prize in the English game, with managers who earned a big portion of their crust with the opposition.
Iain Dowie, who has worked wonders with Palace, taking them to this final after being bottom of Division One at Christmas, was a West Ham player after his £500,000 move to Upton Park, in 1995, from…Palace.
Alan Pardew spent four years at Selhurst Park after joining them from Yeovil Town in 1987.
The connections don't stop there, either, as Hammers' midfielder Steve Lomas was not only a teammate of Dowie's at club level but also in the Northern Ireland team. Lomas indeed owes his Upton Park career to Dowie, and says: "Iain was at West Ham when I first came here and was probably one of the big reasons why I joined. When we played together with Northern Ireland he assured me it would be a good move."
Saturday's final at the Millennium Stadium could be worth tens of millions to the winners and the heartache of at least another season in Division One for the losers. Palace could handle that, financially, but West Ham, with so many big-earners on the playing staff, could suffer disastrously if they don't make it to the promised land of the Premiership.
And for Palace not winning the final could see the departure of many of their highly rated players, not to mention the manager himself who won't want too many years away from plying his trade at the highest level.
There are few clues as to which team will win in Cardiff but there seems to be a greater confidence and belief in the Palace set-up than with West Ham. The Hammers flattered to deceive all season and had they not conceded a winning advantage so many times they would have gone up automatically, and that is sure to be imbedded deep in the players' minds.
There is so much pressure on Alan Pardew's team that if they don't get the run of the ball, or an early goal, they could freeze on the day. And Palace have enough flair and goal power, even without the suspended Julian Gray, with Andrew Johnson, Neil Shipperley and Dougie Freedman to profit.
The Eagles proved in their semi-final that they don't cave in and are capable of coming back from the dead. West Ham's success over Ipswich came after Joe Royle's team pummelled them, without scoring only to be hit by a couple of sucker punches. And surely Matthew Etherington cannot pull another stunning strike out if the locker as he did in the semis. Or can he?
Maybe there won't be too many goals in this but I am going for Crystal Palace and wouldn't it be great to see him leading the attack against Birmingham, next season. So everyone can see, when comparing him to Clinton Morrison, what I meant when I said Palace were getting the best part of that particular transfer deal.
