Hart Attack!

As a Pompey fan, as I am, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Paul Hart – given what he had to work with, the conditions he worked under and how he was poorly treated during his time at Pompey.

That said I raised an eyebrow when he was first appointed manager at QPR, for me I thought the guy MUST be a glutton for punishment taking on that job! All in all I was not surprised he did not last that long…

I was also slightly surprised when he pitched up at Selhurst Park not so long ago.

As I say, I have a lot of respect for the guy although I cannot say that I think he is the most ‘tactically aware’ manager that I have ever come across, and did think ‘Palace could well need a bit of luck with Harty in charge!’

Whilst waiting to go into White Hart Lane, ahead of our game with Spurs last weekend, I was having a pint with a couple of friends, and the Spurs supporting friend of one of our group, in The Ship so caught the end of the Palace defeat against Cardiff – which left you in deep, deep trouble.

So, and especially as it was an away game – I found Hart even less adventurous away from Fratton than I did at it! – I was surprised to see you beat Watford, therefore closing the gap on them to a solitary point, although they have a game in hand, by what looks – on paper – a fairly convincing scoreline of 3-1 on Tuesday…

Hart has either found a new lease of life and has started ‘throwing caution to the wind’, or this was a 3-1 win by chance of some kind?

Palace, or Watford fans for that matter, would know better one way on another…

I have nothing against Palace; in fact one of my most memorable away games came at Selhurst Park against you guys in the late 90s. You had the ‘2 Terry’s’ as your management team at the time – Venables and Fenwick, who we ‘did not like’ very much, to put it mildly, and made this pretty clear that afternoon! You ended up spanking us 4-1, although it took a plea from the late great (Sir) Alan Ball for us to eventually leave, more than 30 minutes after the game had ended.

So, for the sake of Hart, the fact that a London trip makes a ‘decent day out’ on the train from my Devon base and that one of my Pompey friends has PLENTY of Palace supporting mates that I am sure can help aid the ‘enjoyment’ – put us in the right boozer! – of the day out I will keep looking out for your results in the hope that you stay up…

All in all I guess the real questions I want to ask Palace fans is, ‘how is Paul Hart doing as your manager’ and ‘do you think that he can/will keep you up?’

I would also say, speaking as the ed over on Vital Pompey, if there are any Palace fans out there tempted to take on this site I would jump in there!

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