ZAHA MAGIC IS RIGHT ON TIME
Townsend hails return of winger
ANDROS Townsend has been here before. The Palace winger bears the scars of 2016 with Newcastle United, which ended with the Geordies plunging through the trap door.
He knows that relegation does not discriminate and that nobody is immune, regardless of ability. He knows the importance of not getting carried away on days like Saturday, where the classy, powerful performance Palace delivered at snowy Huddersfield made you scratch your head at why they are in the thick of a desperate fight to escape the drop.
Townsend is an intelligent footballer. He is always worth listening to and, following a dominant 2-0 victory against their fellow strugglers which lifted Palace out of the bottom three, he spoke with impressive good sense.
‘ I’ve been in teams before where people have said, “You’re too good to go down”,’ he said. ‘I know to my cost that’s never the case.’
Defender James Tomkins’s first-half tap-in and a thunderous second-half penalty from Luka Milivojevic saw Roy Hodgson’s men make it look easy.
It is nothing new. After their disastrous start under Frank de Boer, Palace have delivered some fine performances. That is not lost on Townsend.
‘It’s been the story of our season, really,’ he said. ‘You watch us, even in our defeats at times, and think, “How on earth are this team down there?”, but we are.’
From first minute to last, Palace, with Wilfried Zaha making his first start since February 4, were excellent. Their considerable flair was unleashed from a foundation of graft and muscle, with both scorers influential.
‘We know that we’ve got the talent and that’s important,’ added Townsend. ‘ But in a relegation battle you need more than talent. You need heart, you need desire, too. You need everything we showed, and we’re going to need that same attitude in the last seven games if we’re going to survive.’
The impact of Zaha’s return was instant. It is 18 months since Palace have won a match without the rapid, quick-footed forward in the side.
‘ Wilf coming back gives us a massive boost,’ Townsend acknowledged. ‘We’ve all seen the stats about what happens when he’s not in the team — I don’t need to harp on about that — and he’s an incredible player for us.
‘We need to keep him fit if we’re going to stay up. If he can keep putting in performances like he did for us here, he’ll be dragging us to more victories.’
Huddersfield announced themselves with a 3-0 opening- day victory at Selhurst Park which suggested they would not be the relegation fodder many predicted.
Their form, however, appears to be dipping and two home matches without scoring against survival rivals does not bode well. Not that manager David Wagner will allow dark thoughts to creep into the minds of his players.
Is the German still confident that Huddersfield can stay up? ‘Yes. If we perform seven times like we did here, then no chance. But if we perform like the games before, then no doubt about it.’
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN (4-2-3-1): Lossl 6; Hadergjonaj 6, Zanka 5, Schindler 5.5, Malone 6 (Lowe 46min, 5.5); Mooy 6, Hogg 6; Quaner 5.5, Ince 4.5 (Van la Parra 61, 5.5), Pritchard 6 (Kachunga 71, 5); Mounie 5.5. Subs not used: Coleman, Smith, Billing, Depoitre. Booked: Schindler, Hogg, Mooy. Manager: David Wagner 5.
CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Hennessey 6; WanBissaka 7, Sakho 7, Tomkins 7.5, Van Aanholt 6.5; Townsend 7, McArthur 6.5, Milivojevic 7.5, Schlupp 5 (Cabaye 20, 6.5); Benteke 7, ZAHA 8 (Loftus-Cheek 89). Subs not used: Cavalieri, Lee, Fosu-Mensah, Kelly, Riedewald. Scorers: Tomkins 23, Milivojevic 68 (pen). Booked: Wan-Bissaka, Cabaye. Manager: Roy Hodgson 7. Referee: Mike Dean 6.5. Attendance: 23,918.