Slipperduke
The Camden Cad
Lee Trundle is overweight, he has a double chin and if he entered the 100m sprint against a tortoise, an elderly shirehorse and a small brick, no-one could guarantee him a place on the podium. He has also just put Bristol City one game away from a place in the Premier League with a strike that fully demonstrated why his slow, but mercurial talents deserve a chance to be showcased there. In extra-time, with a penalty shoot-out looming, he brought the ball down outside the box with his right foot, shifted his balance and then curled it effortlessly past Julian Speroni in the Crystal Palace goal.
Bristol City have spent most of the last 28 years in the third flight of English football and were heading for the fourth when manager Gary Johnson arrived in 2005. The former Yeovil boss has turned the club around and, of all the teams in the play-offs, City play the most attractive football. It's not just Lee Trundle who is capable of the sublime either. They also have the former Wolves winger Michael McIndoe, who cracked in a second goal to break Crystal Palace's hearts, and the Australian talent Nick Carle.
Bristol is one of those strange parts of England where rugby is more prevalent than football, but you wouldn't have been able to tell that from the fervent level of support in Ashton Gate. Over 20,000 Bristolians crammed into the stadium and they rattled the foundations with noise. Having won the first leg away at Selhurst Park, this was their tie to lose, but despite shipping a terrible first goal to Neil Warnock's side, they never stopped singing. They were pushing their luck when, with two minutes to go, they clambered over the advertising hoardings and had to held back by lines of police, but then this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often for clubs like Bristol City.
Crystal Palace will wonder how it wasn’t them travelling to Wembley instead. Ben Watson, the flame-headed midfielder who featured in their last spell at the top, headed the opener from outside the area after a mix-up between City's Brazilian goalkeeper Adriano Basso and Jamie McCoombe, but he went from hero to zero in the second half when he crashed a penalty against the post. If he'd have scored, City would have been sunk, but the miss galvanised them into action.
Warnock, so often castigated for his attitude, handled defeat magnificently. He arrived at Selhurst Park when Palace were in serious danger of relegation and the mere fact that they were in these play-offs is an achievement in itself. When McIndoe fired home the decisive goal, he actually applauded and, as the clock ran down, he turned to acknowledge the support of the home crowd. So much for Mr Nasty. After the game he could only shake his head in wonder at the magnificence of those two crucial goals.
Older readers may remember a Southampton striker by the name of Matt Le Tissier who infuriated his managers with his refusal to ever break out of a slow trot, but captivated fans of all allegiances by scoring some of the best goals that the English football has ever seen. Trundle is Le Tissier, version 2.0. Hugely talented, but...also, well...huge. He was once on David Moyes' shopping list, but the Everton boss decided that his lack of pace would be punished in the top flight and decided against the purchase. Now he is 90 minutes away from proving Moyes wrong and getting there under his own steady steam.
Bristol City have spent most of the last 28 years in the third flight of English football and were heading for the fourth when manager Gary Johnson arrived in 2005. The former Yeovil boss has turned the club around and, of all the teams in the play-offs, City play the most attractive football. It's not just Lee Trundle who is capable of the sublime either. They also have the former Wolves winger Michael McIndoe, who cracked in a second goal to break Crystal Palace's hearts, and the Australian talent Nick Carle.
Bristol is one of those strange parts of England where rugby is more prevalent than football, but you wouldn't have been able to tell that from the fervent level of support in Ashton Gate. Over 20,000 Bristolians crammed into the stadium and they rattled the foundations with noise. Having won the first leg away at Selhurst Park, this was their tie to lose, but despite shipping a terrible first goal to Neil Warnock's side, they never stopped singing. They were pushing their luck when, with two minutes to go, they clambered over the advertising hoardings and had to held back by lines of police, but then this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often for clubs like Bristol City.
Crystal Palace will wonder how it wasn’t them travelling to Wembley instead. Ben Watson, the flame-headed midfielder who featured in their last spell at the top, headed the opener from outside the area after a mix-up between City's Brazilian goalkeeper Adriano Basso and Jamie McCoombe, but he went from hero to zero in the second half when he crashed a penalty against the post. If he'd have scored, City would have been sunk, but the miss galvanised them into action.
Warnock, so often castigated for his attitude, handled defeat magnificently. He arrived at Selhurst Park when Palace were in serious danger of relegation and the mere fact that they were in these play-offs is an achievement in itself. When McIndoe fired home the decisive goal, he actually applauded and, as the clock ran down, he turned to acknowledge the support of the home crowd. So much for Mr Nasty. After the game he could only shake his head in wonder at the magnificence of those two crucial goals.
Older readers may remember a Southampton striker by the name of Matt Le Tissier who infuriated his managers with his refusal to ever break out of a slow trot, but captivated fans of all allegiances by scoring some of the best goals that the English football has ever seen. Trundle is Le Tissier, version 2.0. Hugely talented, but...also, well...huge. He was once on David Moyes' shopping list, but the Everton boss decided that his lack of pace would be punished in the top flight and decided against the purchase. Now he is 90 minutes away from proving Moyes wrong and getting there under his own steady steam.
