Why I hate Palarse
There has always been some debate by Addicks as to why we hate Palace so much. It is obviously true that some of us don't identify with this destestation of the Glaziers and although younger fans have probably been handed down the rivarly, older fans have their own reasons.
I grew up in Catford and at school as a Charlton fan I considered our rivarly to be with Millwall because I had mates who supported them but both me and my Millwall pals hated Palace. Apart from the usual United, Liverpool and Arsenal fans in the playground, the kids like me who actually used to go to games either supported the Lions, West Ham or Charlton.
Palace fans used to come and go with the seasons, depending on how they were doing. The media always had a soft spot for Palace (
and still do!) and that used to annoy the hell out of me and my Millwall mates - the back pages and tv used salivate over the team of the 80's, Malcolm Allison, Terry Venables, Vince Hilaire and it was laughable. Back then we considered ourselves real fans not kids from surburbia who wore a stripey kit around Bromley and thought they were hard.
They had so many reasons to be disliked back then - Alan Mullery, Jim Cannon, Billy Gilbert, the fact they changed their kit
every year, their smart-arsed passionless glory boy fans. Remember that last game of the season when they played, was it Burnley, and had to win to go up and 50,000 odd crammed into Selhurst? Made me laugh that did.
This was summed up perfectly yesterday when I met a bloke who works in my office. He used to live in Bermuda but grew up in England and announced he was a Palace fan. A wry smile passed over my lips as I said to him,
"you must of had a dismal weekend then?" He looked at me and said
"why was that then?" Yep, sums them up. You find
a Charlton fan around the world who didn't know what happened Sunday.
When I was a kid they were an annoyance more than anything else but that all changed after we moved to Selhurst and please don't ever let me hear another Palace fan say that they
"did us a favour." What bollocks.
Anyway their day will come when Noades decides to boot them out of their dump of a ground and sells it or it gets into such a state of disrepair that it is no longer considered acceptable for League football. Maybe the Conference will take pity.