And so it begins...

There are no good ways to find out that your club has just gone into administration. That said, receiving an email from a plastic Spurs fan, containing a news link and the words 'happy to lend you a fiver', is far from ideal. Save for having the news personally delivered to me via telegram by a mankini-clad Iain Dowie, I can't really envisage a less desirable way of finding out. Still, rest assured that said fiver will be claimed. And not returned.

It's hard to believe that ten years after our last flirtation with imminent collapse, we're back where we started - in administration. Despite our well documented financial woes, I've personally found it very hard to stomach, or indeed believe. It's difficult to know how to feel - angry, upset, worried, even hopeful? Certainly, in amongst the gloom there are still reasons to be cheerful. Those who remember our last period in administration will no doubt hold many of those memories dear; Norwich away, the re-birth of Dean Austin and, most importantly, the incredible camaraderie on the terraces are but a selection of the memories that have long since gone down in Palace folklore. Suffice it to say, there's plenty more where they came from.

Which brings me onto the subject of this humble blog. No matter how this story ends, there can be no doubt that we're now entering a crucial period in the club's history; it's no exaggeration to say that the very future of our club will rest on the events that take place over the coming weeks and months. Quite simply, I want to document this journey as it happens. This blog isn't a place for up to the minute news, nor will it be home to behind the scenes insight and gossip. What I and a few other Palace fans will be providing is a fan's eye view of the current situation, toy throwing and hopelessly biased commentary included. If other fans (Palace or otherwise) happen to stumble across this blog, then comments and discussion would be more than welcome.

Finally, I couldn't finish this introductory post without including an email from a mate, received just this morning. Mourning our inability to get up to tonight's game on Tyneside, the following put a big smile on my face:

"Why aren’t we there tonight??? Palace win 2-0, full celebration by players and staff, even claude on stetcher celebrating, moses and danns in tears throw their shirts to crowd, derry climbs to 7^th floor to reach fans a’la Pat Cash, Newcastle cheers us out of ground, speroni shakes hands with every member of 50k crowd, our greatest ever night, Warnock says bring on peterboro we’re all staying to fight, Jordan on bench, dougie and clinton come back, Lombardo pledges support and routledge breaks leg……….

Here we go again...

Dan