This was fraught, horribly panic-stricken and utterly excruciating viewing at times but, in the end, Crystal Palace will hardly care. After 14 increasingly desperate matches and 112 days spent spiralling down the Premier League table, all their early-season momentum long since drained, Alan Pardew’s team finally have a victory to celebrate. The din at the final whistle was one of pure, unadulterated relief with the associate director Eddie Izzard, clad in his Palace shirt, dancing in tickled delight in his Cuban heels up in the main stand.
Even better. Jason Puncheon’s goal celebration was tribute to Raphael’s “Deposition of Christ“
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) April 9, 2016
(thanks @Mcfarlmo) pic.twitter.com/tGgaUwwHOl
This game’s solitary dash of quality provided its defining moment, Jason Puncheon collecting possession from Joel Ward and cutting in from the right while Norwich players strained to catch up. The left-footed finish was curled deliciously inside John Ruddy’s far post, with the subsequent eruption of joy among those in the Holmesdale end behind the goal virtually sucking the match-winner into the crowd. This was his first goal of a strangely anaemic season, and one that was celebrated with gusto.
“Punch carries this football club in his heart,” said Pardew of a player who grew up a stone’s throw from the arena. “Players are professional and do their jobs, but they don’t all have that emotional tie with a particular club. Jason was born here. His family are all from here, and were probably all in the stands today. He was feeling the pain of this run. His return from injury recently has been a huge lift for us, with his personality and leadership. He represents everything that’s right about a black player coming from this area and going on to play for his club. The way he conducts himself around our younger pros, particularly those of ethnic origin … the inspiration he provides. It couldn’t be more fitting that he got the goal.”
The reward was breathing space stretched to 10 points from Sunderland, and the knowledge that victory over Everton here on Wednesday could actually hoist Palace back to the relatively giddy heights of 12th place. Yet, for all that they conjured some fine late opportunities to stretch their lead – the substitute Wilfried Zaha in particular stretching the visitors, with Ruddy twice forced to block vicious efforts – it would be foolish to suggest they are playing like a mid-table side. This team were cramped by nerves too often, with Pardew admitting his players had been hindered by the occasion far more obviously than City.
“I know how it affects you, I can see it in certain individuals,” he said. “They’re tense, they’re edgy. They play a little bit like that. Funnily enough, I thought Norwich were a bit more relaxed than us, but that’s a massive win. Maybe it will settle us down and allow us to play a bit more football.” This team had not basked in a league victory since winning 2-1 at Stoke on 19 December and had lost their previous six at Selhurst Park. A weight has been lifted from their shoulders.
The same cannot be said for Norwich. Alex Neil will watch Sunderland’s game against the leaders, Leicester, hopeful his side’s four-point cushion is not eroded before the Wearsiders’ visit to Carrow Road on Saturday. He described this as a “nonevent”, a contest as drab and jittery as the one his team won at West Bromwich Albion last month. He was even loth to bemoan the failure to award a first-half penalty when Damien Delaney barged Matt Jarvis off the ball and the referee gave the visitors a corner. Pardew described that as “a robust challenge”. Jarvis was still protesting as the players departed the pitch at the interval.
The loss of Timm Klose to a knee injury darkened the mood further but, while there were late free-kicks and corners pumped into the Palace penalty area with Wayne Hennessey atoning in part for some early indecision by pushing away Ryan Bennett’s poked volley, Norwich did not create enough against a team who had not kept a clean sheet in the league since 28 December. The FA Cup semi-finalists leant on their old guard with Scott Dann, Delaney and the captain, Mile Jedinak, finally strong-arming them over the finish line.
“I said in the dressing room it was a day for the skipper: all bombs and guns and artillery, bullets in the trenches, and he deals with that situation really well,” added Pardew. “This win was everything for us.”
