point of view
Just for Men by Kate Greenhalgh
I
n case you’re bothered by the appalling gender bias of this magazine, I’m using the back page properly for once: for football. We ladies might huff and puff, but what honest man, after a long week, isn’t glad to herd through the turnstiles, neck a dodgy burger and spend a couple of hours shouting and chanting with 25,000 other men? Come on girls, at least it’s better than them watching it at home with their mates, with a lot of shouting and chanting (and drinking beer and swearing and dropping crisps on the floor.) So maybe that’s why it’s
such fun at Selhurst Park - 25,000 men doing all of the above, and it’s not our problem. It’s the nice policeman on a horse's problem. I’ve gone to a lot of the home fixtures for Crystal Palace this season. It makes sense - they are in the Premier League, so the football is quite good, and it’s much cheaper than Chelsea tickets. I’m not going to embarrass myself, a middleaged lady from the leafy suburbs burbling on about how adorably gritty it is to be in the Arthur Wait stand of a Saturday, jumping up
and down singing “We support THE PALACE! THE PALACE! THE PALACE!” because, obviously, it’s a helluva lot of fun. The ladies’ loo is a paradise of no queues, and women are treated like royalty. We don’t get searched for cans of beer in our coat pockets, (they miss a trick there), we don’t get told to arrfing arrfing arrff off by the away supporters we meet outside the gates, but for 90 minutes we get to be an honorary boy - shouting, chanting, and dropping crisps. It makes a change from flower arranging. But this brings me to my original point. After a shaky start under Ian Holloway, Tony Pulis’ team have consolidated their defensive position and are passing convincingly in the midfield. Faith in the striking abilities of Chamakh and a recognition of his aerial abilities, which need space, have produced a steady climb up the table under Jedinak’s strong captaincy; but without heavy reliance on Julian Speroni’s saves, can Palace avoid relegation? I write this without knowing. When you read this, we probably do.
Photography: Neil Everitt
46 april–may 2014 | darlingmagazine.co.uk
We support THE PALACE, THE PALACE, THE PALACE …