Palace have one foot in the final

Ken Dyer13 April 2012
Crystal Palace 2 Liverpool 1

Alan Smith was back at work today. The usual type of schedule; a training session, assorted meetings, perhaps even a set or two of tennis if he could fit it in.

The Crystal Palace manager lives his life to the full and there is little time in his crowded programme to dwell on anything, even his team's first-leg win over Liverpool in the Worthington Cup semi-final.

On the evidence of last night, however, it was fortunate that Smith found a window of opportunity open just wide enough to take a trip earlier this season to watch the Latvian national goalkeeper Aleksandrs Kolinko play against Scotland.

"I shouldn't have gone really," recalled Smith today. "I had a hundred and one things to do and couldn't spare the time.

"It's not like Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, you know; private jet and that sort of thing. For me, it was EasyJet from Luton.

"It turned out to be a worthwhile trip, though, because we decided to sign both Kolinko and Andrejs Rubins after watching them a few more times."

Palace paid £600,000 apiece for the two Latvians and, after their performances against Liverpool at Selhurst Park, they have already repaid the First Division club.

They say a top striker never misses an opening, whether it's a goal, a supermarket or a wine bar, but Liverpool's pairing of Michael Owen and Emile Heskey were uncharacteristically profligate against Palace.

Kolinko, a real giant of a keeper, should take a lot of credit for that. At the other end, however, the speedy Rubins scored Palace's opening goal in the 55th minute with a spectacular left-foot shot which almost hit Liverpool's Sander Westerveld on the way back out of the net.

As a general rule, Smith believes his foreign signings are more responsive to coaching than their English counterparts.

"Both the Latvians are very coachable, even though they can't speak English," he said. "Rubins is a very quiet, single lad and since he's been here he's only said a couple of words. Alek has his wife here with him now and he's settled but they're both good players and eager to learn.

"I don't want to create divisions within the camp because all the players did incredibly well against Liverpool but often it is the foreign players who are the easiest to coach.

"I think the whole squad is making progress now and I have another two weeks in which to work with them before the second leg at Anfield. We have one foot over the line after the first leg and now we have to drag the other one across.

"I know we're not there yet, though. We were 15 minutes away from an FA Cup Final when I was here the first time but we blew it and I can still remember the bitter taste of disappointment. It lasted for a long, long time.

"With this win we have given ourselves a fighting chance. We have to go to Liverpool and keep a clean sheet and I don't believe that is a difficult task."

Palace can certainly get to the final in Cardiff on 25 February if Liverpool are anywhere near as wasteful again.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson's able lieutenant, Tord Grip, was at Selhurst Park, presumably to check out Owen, Heskey, Steven Gerrard and Nick Barmby, but his report is unlikely to be too complimentary.

Owen, in particular, remains a worry. Gone, at least for the moment, is that zip, that youthful self-confidence which marked him out as an England regular for years to come. All we have now is a player who looks more uncertain the closer to the goal he gets.

Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier substituted Owen and Danny Murphy in the second half, replacing them with Vladimir Smicer and new signing, Finnish striker Jari Litmanen. It was those two who eventually combined to produce Liverpool's goal in the 77th minute, Smicer prodding home Litmanen's cross.

By that time, though, Clinton Morrison, who looked a great deal more lively than Owen, had scored a second for Palace from Craig Harrison's cross.

Houllier may be taking Liverpool in the right direction but they still have a way to go.

Palace, for their part, and at their lower level, seem to be making rapid progress, as Smith emphasised.

"Our defence has been terrific for some time," he said. "That's saying a lot about a team who had five goals put past them against Crawley in pre-season and six against Reading.

"I see that some of our players want to play in the Premiership and that's fine by me. Why don't they take me with them? Why don't they take the chairman and this club with them?

"My fear now is that their heads will be up in the clouds. We've beaten Liverpool, we play Sunder-land next week in the FA Cup and then it's up to Anfield for the second leg.

"In between all that, we play Nottingham Forest and Gillingham in the League and we have to pick up some points otherwise we are back in trouble.

"We don't want that to happen, we can't let that happen. We've all worked too hard for it to happen."

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