Pardew dream is alive and kicking
KELLY SEALS PALACE WIN
WHEN the memories stir and Alan Pardew starts talking about the 1990 FA Cup final, the Crystal Palace manager turns into a hopeless old romantic.
Pardew’s bond with this competition is strong and his heart was fluttering after Palace pulled off an improbable victory against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. He has set pulses racing.
From here he will travel to his old team Reading for the quarter-final, to the stadium where he made his name in management after he packed up his playing career. You just know he will love that.
There were more than 5,000 Palace supporters in north London, most of them travelling in hope rather than expectation after being drawn against this highly-fancied Tottenham team.
Pardew’s side have hit a sticky spell in the Premier League. They are without a win in nine, since a late winner at Stoke City on Decem- ber 19. In the FA Cup, they have been transformed. The break in Barcelona last week did them the world of good.
They have beaten three top-flight teams — Southampton, Stoke and Tottenham — on the way to their first quarter-final since 1995.
Even Emmanuel Adebayor, jeered by the Tottenham supporters every time he took a touch, played his part in this breathtaking Palace victory. They sold Mauricio Pochettino’s side down the river, surviving the wave upon wave of Tottenham attacks to reach the last eight.
Palace are there because Martin Kelly scored a beauty, driving his effort in first-half stoppage time into the roof of Michel Vorm’s net after Wilfried Zaha teed him up.
This was Zaha’s playground, reviving memories of the run of form that took him into the England squad for a friendly against Sweden at the Friends Arena in 2011. Surely he is close to a recall.
The Palace winger was intoxicating, showing maturity to delay his pass on the edge of the penalty area to leave three Tottenham defenders stranded in the build up to the winner.
There is an intelligence about his game these days, he can drift effortlessly across the forward line or to leave full backs eating his dust. Eventually, inevitably, Danny Rose was booked.
Palace’s victory will raise fresh questions about the desire of this Tottenham team to get the job done at the very highest level. They had been on a real hot streak, with seven wins and a draw in their last eight games, as they chased trophies in the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League. Tottenham are down to two now, with Thursday’s second-leg clash with Fiorentina in the Europa League taking on added significance after this slip against Palace.
Adebayor had some entertaining battles, some with the home fans, screaming at him by the time he was substituted in the 75th minute, and others with Tottenham’s defensive pairing. Eric Dier and Kevin Wimmer were all over the Togo forward, clattering into him or hitching a ride on his back whenever Palace launched the ball into him. He sacrificed himself for Palace’s cause, turning in a tireless display alongside Connor Wickham to take the heat off his team-mates. What happened to this polished Tottenham team, the one that captured hearts with their relentless, one-touch attacking football under Pochettino? They hit a brick wall here. Dele Alli, who scored one of the goals of the season in Tottenham’s 3-1 win at Palace last month, was central to everything Pochettino’s team did well.
The midfielder was unlucky in the 22nd minute, his rolled effort beat- ing Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey and clipping each post before getting booted clear of danger.
Kelly’s goal, his first in 1,545 days — since Liverpool’s 2-0 victory at Chelsea in November 2011 — posed a number of questions for Pochettino’s team. They had no answers.
Even the introduction of Christian Eriksen at the break failed to make a difference, with Tottenham increasingly agitated as this tie wore on.
Alli was convinced he should have had a penalty 10 minutes after the break when he collided with Palace captain Damien Delaney as he made his way into the area. It was a frivolous appeal.
The all-action 19-year- old drew gasps from the Tottenham support when a long-range effort on the hour mark flew narrowly wide. When Alli’s legs gave up on him 11 minutes from time, the hosts’ chances of scrambling an equaliser disappeared down the tunnel with him.
It means the dream is on for Pardew, with a return to the club he walked out on to join West Ham in 2003 after a bitter battle in the High Court.
For FA Cup romantics, they could not have picked a better tie.