Cameron Jerome's strike capped an excellent individual display as Blues turned in one of their best away performances of the season to put all the bickering and in-fighting behind them - for now.
Crystal Palace 0 Blues 1 .. Report
Blues were unchanged from the team (and set of substitutes) that beat Stoke last week, meaning Damien Johnson continued to keep Seb Larsson out of the side. Palace included Paul Ifill, Dougie Freedman and Shefki Kuqi in their side, and had the likes of James Scowcroft, Clinton Morrison and Jobi McAnuff on the bench - they may not have been having the greatest of seasons, but they've still got players who are proven at this level, and the level above.
Blues started well and looked up for the game from the off. They should have been ahead early on after a stunning run from Jerome that showed that he was in the mood. He powered forward from inside his own half, as Nicklas Bendtner and Johnson (that's the defensive, never moves forwards, blah blah blah Johnson) bombed forward to support him. Jerome picked out Bendtner who was one-on-one with recent Villa loanee and dedicated follower of fashion Gabor Kiraly, but the young Dane fired high, wide and as handsome as the Hungarian 'keeper he was faced with. Cue hundreds of, "you'd have backed him to score from there" comments amongst the travelling Blues fans.
Blues continued to threaten with Jerome particularly menacing, but also Johnson playing superbly on the right flank. It's all too easy to criticise Johnson, as I say every week, but he was excellent as an attacking right winger in the first half here - whether someone had told him to play with more freedom, I'm not sure, but he did - he was involved in most of Blues' good attacking work. He set up Jerome who went close, and then went close himself before being flagged offside (he was flagged offside! That can't happen if you never run forwards!). Stephen Clemence also went close with a low drive that was blocked, about three minutes after he didn't go close with a dreadful effort that was closer to the top corner of the stand behind the goal than the top corner of Kiraly's goal.
Palace posed about as much threat to Blues early on as an Audley Harrison assault on a Heavyweight world title, but did gradually pick themselves up a little as Blues seemed to just ease off midway through the half. Ifill (who's always been a good player at this level) posed a few problems for Blues, but Radhi Jaidi marshalled the Blues defence pretty well, whilst in front of him Clemence and Fabrice Muamba never really lost control of the midfield.
Just after the half hour mark Blues took a deserved lead. Gary McSheffrey (who had a quiet first half) found Bendtner down the left. Bendtner took on a couple of players and pulled the ball back for Jerome who turned and shot, wrong-footing Kiraly who dived the wrong way and got his lovely grey pyjama bottoms all muddy in vain. It was no less than Blues and Jerome deserved.
Before the break Ifill hit a post with a scuffed shot after he'd cut in from the right, whilst Bendtner twice headed over, but it was 1-0 to Blues at the break, and you couldn't argue with that at all.
The second half was a bit less eventful, as Palace toiled to get back into the game, whilst Blues soaked up their toothless efforts and looked to hit them on the counter-attack whenever possible. Palace had a few weak shots which went wide or barely tested Colin Doyle, and eventually resorted to throwing on Morrison, Scowcroft and McAnuff - the three of those with Ifill should have posed more of a threat than they did. Scowcroft typically won plenty of ball in the air, including one header that was straight at Doyle, whilst Morrison was typically hopeless and his only real contribution was whinging about a penalty appeal when Martin Taylor brushed past him in the penalty area. Morrison did that spinning around, jumping up in the air with his head to the heavens and throwing his arms out in a way that looks like he'll dislocate both his shoulders thing in protest - something we all came to know and hate during his spell at Blues.
At the other end McSheffrey got into the game as Blues continued to break, and he, Jerome, Bendtner and then Rowan Vine (who replaced Bendtner) all got into positions in which a bit more composure might have doubled Blues' lead, but it wasn't to be, and keeping the ball at that end of the pitch was no bad thing anyway.
So, it was back to the football after a week of nonsense, and thankfully Blues let their football do the talking. Admittedly Palace aren't the force at this level that they often are, but it's still not an easy away game, and when you look at some of the players they have available to them - particularly forwards - they're not a bad side, so this was a cracking result for Blues - especially with their nearest rivals being forced into FA Cup replays, getting players sent off (and thus suspended) in demoralising FA Cup defeats or just getting players sent off (and thus suspended) in a league game. Blues played well and it was fine example of a good away performance - Blues controlled the game from the start and thoroughly deserved the three points.
As I've mentioned above, special praise should go to Damien Johnson who is always a decent contributor to the side, but today was excellent. With all that surrounds Johnson it is easy to lose sight of the contributions that he makes, but as a right winger today (before he moved inside when Muamba was taken off late on) he produced a cracking performance. I'd still like to see Larsson involved, but Johnson's making it difficult, and *puts manager's hat on* it's a nice problem to have.
I've praised Jerome too, but it's worth highlighting the fact that when he's in this kind of mood (the superb 60 yard run in the opening minutes may have helped) he's virtually unplayable. Finally, the back four were all solid enough today, and whilst Colin Doyle has now kept two consecutive clean sheets, the fact that he's barely been tested is testament to the fact that those in front of him have settled down following the departure of Matthew Upson, who didn't help the side keep a clean sheet in his final seven games for the club.
With respect to the "other matters", well the Blues fans were excellent. David Gold came over before kick-off and received a standing ovation, whilst Steve Bruce was supported amidst all the booing from the Palace fans who were stoked up as ever by the loveable Simon Jordan. There was little to upset the Blues fans to be honest, as they were given plenty to cheer by the team. Isn't that the way it should be? Hopefully everything else can take a back seat for a few months now.