Another international break - another excuse for Palace?

This season it is a question of what spirit?

After humiliating away losses to Scunthorpe and Derby, the Eagles have the best opportunity to show that spirit when they welcome south London rivals Millwall to Selhurst Park next Saturday.

In all fairness, Palace were starting to show their determination and spirit and done extremely well to get themselves back into the game against Neil Warnock’s men, until the 93rd minute when Icelandic international Helguson broke Eagles hearts.

But Palace seem to be running out of excuses.

After complaints from Palace fans that Edgar Davids was being put out of his depth as a left-back, what other excuses are there when the experienced midfielder plays a sloppy back pass to Speroni that leads to a goal whilst playing in his favoured holding role.

The Dutchman seemed to be out of his depth throughout the duration of the match and was eventually substituted.

Now I am not a person to criticise, and someone of Edgar Davids Calibre is the type of player I would see as a role model, but is it time he calls it a day?

The excuse that came out of the Palace dressing room this time was that Davids had picked up a knock.

The veteran has enough experience to pick himself up from this and show the Palace faithful why so many have seen him as the saviour of Palace.

A player of his class can change a game in an instance and to have him around the training ground can only be a positive for any youngster.

Only time will tell.

Everyone knows that Palace shouldn’t be second from bottom, including the fact they have only recently come out of administration and financial trouble.

You only have to look at the team to see that the likes of Speroni, Clyne, McCarthy and Ambrose are among the best players in the league.

We should have enough belief and spirit to overcome all this bad luck and injuries that seem to have occurred constantly over the last few seasons.

What better incentive is there for a youngster, or an experienced player for that matter, to improve their teams performances than putting in 100% against their bitter rivals and securing a win.

Palace now have plenty of time to regroup, hope that Ambrose regains his fitness and start believing in themselves.

They have an endless list of talented youngsters, a Dutchman who has played for Europe's biggest teams and one of Palace record goal scorers as an assistant to look up to.

In my opinion, a team couldn’t ask for more. I see no reason why George Burley’s men cannot give a good performance against the blue side of south London and secure three points that would do nicely for bragging rights!

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