In 21013/14 a strong aspect of our success that kept us up in the Premier League was our home form but so far this season, performances at Selhurst have been disappointing, having only picked up three wins against Leicester, Liverpool and Tottenham. This needs to change with drastic improvements to the way we play at home, to enable the club to move forward in the future but also help us stay in the Premier League for a third season.
Under Tony Pulis last season, Crystal Palace were a solid defensive unit which was present in the eight games won at Selhurst Park, giving it the name ‘Fortress Selhurst’. Fans of the Eagles have always been known for the electric atmosphere they create both at home and away games but last season, the atmosphere was racked up a notch at Selhurst.
Opposition players would have been intimidated at the ‘Fortress’ with a constant raucous noise coming from the stands. It isn’t just the away players that it affects either as our own players would have been motivated by the support coming from the stands, leading to good results on the pitch.
After a string of poor home performances this season, there has been moments where fans have been getting frustrated but the players need our continuous support no matter what happens.
Last year, our solid home form was desperately needed due to our not so encouraging away form. However, this season it seems to be a different story as our away performances as under Alan Pardew have improved massively with five away wins out of five since the former Newcastle boss took over at the turn of the year.
We seem to be scoring a lot more freely and even have the ability to come from behind to take all three points. We have just beaten a fine West Ham side away from home, scoring three away goals in the process. These away results have been fantastic but to make any significant progress we need to start picking up points at Selhurst and make it an even tougher place for teams to come to.
Home form is a basis for the club to move on and achieve bigger things. If we can manage to turn ours around for the rest of the season, there may be a possibility of pushing on to better things. Who knows what we can achieve.
