Crystal Palace 0, Charlton Athletic 1: Pardew laments Addicks' fall into relative obscurity

By Conrad Leach
Published: 03 September 2007

"You don't come and see me any more, you Premier League snob," said Alan Pardew in a tongue-in-cheek aside to a journalist after his side's win at Selhurst Park. It was meant in a jokey way, and taken as such, but there was truth in what he said.

Now Charlton have dropped out of the top flight, they are less in the public eye. Press conferences are more sparsely attended, pre- and post-match, and Pardew knows it. He likes being in the spotlight and enjoys talking to the media. That was the case when he was on the way up with Reading and he basked still more in the attention when he took West Ham to the Premiership in 2005.

Things turned sour last season, when he was sacked as the Hammers' manager in December. He quickly re-emerged at Charlton, only in a similar place: the relegation zone. Unfortunately for him, there was no Carlos Tevez figure in his Addicks squad – despite Darren Bent's £16m price tag – and they slipped out of the top flight, finishing above only Watford.

Even if Charlton never paid out huge transfer fees for top players in order to stay up, the rules of attraction have tilted even more against them now they have dropped a division. Last week they brought in Danny Mills. He is on loan from Manchester City, although there is no conceivable way he will return to Eastlands and play under Sven Goran Eriksson.

The right-back's last game in England, prior to this south London derby, was for Hull against Wolves last November and that absence showed in his distribution and awareness on Saturday. Pardew made it clear he was not happy in the first half with the player who made it to the 2002 World Cup with England.

Crystal Palace could have attacked down either flank, as they were Charlton's obvious weak points with Chris Powell, 38 this week, on the other side to Mills. Yet Peter Taylor's side forced only two saves from Nicky Weaver, although that did not stop the Eagles manager professing his disappointment at the defeat.

In a largely sterile game, Svetoslav Todorov helped himself to the only goal. Thanks to a misjudgement by Julian Speroni in the Crystal Palace goal, the Bulgarian lofted the ball over the goalkeeper and tapped it in. It was a useful result, but it will not exactly get those press conferences full again.