Palace: View from the opposition
Ahead of Liverpool's final Anfield game of the season on Saturday with Crystal Palace, we spoke with Eagles hero Mark Bright about the clash and Steven Gerrard's farewell to the Kop.
So Mark, will you be coming up to Anfield for the game on Saturday?
Yes, of course. Obviously it's a massive occasion for Steven, his family, the football club, the players and our players as well to be part of such a glorious event. I think you have to say it's a special moment, but there's a competitive football match at the heart of it, and you have to remember that there's still three points up for grabs.
All the talk this week has obviously been about Steven Gerrard, do you have any reflections about watching him over his career?
What is there to add to what everyone's already said about Steven? Having watched his career from the embryonic stage - I think I was just finishing in 1998-99 so I don't think I faced Stevie - but watching his career develop has been amazing. You see the potential there at the start and see him fulfilling that potential. At the end of your career it's a difficult moment and you have to say to yourself, 'Was I the best I could have been, could I have done anything more to make myself a better player?' and if the answer is no. I think you've fulfilled yourself as a footballer. To watch his career from start to middle and now in its twilight, he's been fantastic, he's given everybody some magical moments. I think Istanbul is the pinnacle of team spirit, drive, a captain leading from the front, turning that game around. I think he's had a fantastic career and it's time for everyone to celebrate that.
Just from a Palace perspective, is it a good thing to be involved in Gerrard's farewell as it adds more interest than a usual end-of-season game?
I don't think our players will have played in anything like it, the wave of emotion and just a joyous occasion. It won't be like a glorified testimonial because every game Stevie plays in he wants to try and win. I think our boys will be mindful of going there and not getting swept aside by the whole emotion of it and we've just got to concentrate and focus on what we've got to do. As a team, the boys have been working all this week and there are two big games left. The manager's said that they want to pick up more points so we want to be part of it but we have to concentrate and focus with the noise, the singing of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and the emotion and get off to a good start.
Who've you been impressed by most at Palace this season?
Scott Dann was voted the Player of the Year by the supporters on Wednesday and James McArthur was the vice-president's Player of the Year, so I think those two players have been really great. Jason Puncheon's been consistent, Wilfried [Zaha] has been good since he came back and Julian Speroni's been consistent in goal. I think Dann was the right choice, though. He's been fantastic all season since he came. He's a Scouser isn't he? I think for him and Martin Kelly it'll be a big day. Especially for Martin having played with Steven and Steven having helped him, I hope he's in the squad and gets on.
It's been a strange season for Alan Pardew, starting badly at Newcastle, now popular and getting plaudits at Palace. What qualities have helped him turn things around?
I think he's got a lot of self-belief. Obviously I played with him and he's very single-minded. He's not a weak person at all. He's very strong and he's instilled belief in the squad and when you have a plan and you win, the team believe in you more. He's added discipline within the group, within the club and clarity on what he wants from everybody at the club. It's been a bit of a sad end of the season losing some games we felt we could have won but with results going as well as they were, everything he wanted to do he managed to pull off.
You played with Pardew in a Palace team which lost 9-0 at Anfield, but went on to gain revenge the same season by winning 4-3 in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final against the Reds. How did it feel first to lose, and then win?
The loss was very humiliating obviously. I don't think I'd ever lost at school or on a Sunday morning by 9-0. We got completely played off the park by Liverpool and all of the goals were very good goals. We used it to our benefit in the semi-final, everybody thought we'd get a good hiding again. It was just one of those days that the game went back one way and then the other and you could say it was fate. It was an unbelievable day for Crystal Palace FC. We'd beaten the best team in England and maybe in Europe as they won the league that season.
Given that history, is it always special for him and for you to play Liverpool?
I think it's always a special occasion playing Liverpool, you know with the history and tradition for our generation of people they're always one of the scalps you want to get. There've been some ding-dong games between Liverpool and Palace over the years. Hopefully it'll be a great day that can match the occasion.