Guess the Score: after Slaven Bilic’s spot of Croatian humour, bring on Crystal Palace

After Sunderland’s completely needless defeat at West Ham, we probably all needed cheering up.

Step forward Slaven Bilic, the Hammers’ normally impressive manager.

With tongue firmly in cheek, as if to remind us Croatians have a sense of humour too, Bilic had this to say about a match in which SAFC gifted his side a goal out of nothing and then squandered chance after chance not only to draw level but to win quite comfortably.

“We created more chances, scored the goal and hit the post twice,” Bilic told The Observer (they actually hit the bar twice, as we did once, but let’s not be too pedantic) but the best is to come ….

“There’s always the danger that you are going to concede. They created some chances in the second half but if you are trying to tell me they deserved to win the game, no way. Every team that plays today and goes 1-0 down will get chances to equalise.”

Fair enough. He is partisan, just as we are. He won’t really believe his own words, or at least not the ones I highlight in bold; it’s not his job to make us feel better or hard-done-by.

See Sixer’s brilliant appraisal of West ham 1-0 Sunderland at https://safc.blog/2016/02/sixers-west-ham-soapbox-burst-bubbles-and-no-fizz/

Crystal Palace arrive at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday as a right old banana skin side. Twice in successive seasons, we have beaten them at their place in remotest sarf London (which often seems to take longer to get to from Ealing than does Kings Cross from Sunderland). And then they came to the SoL and tore us apart.

There have been other seriously disappointing results against Palace over the years. If we seriously want to stay up, there must be no mistakes on Tuesday. Is PvA listening? Or N’Doye, also culpable in the goal at Upton Park, Khazri (ludicrous showboating nbear the end as if we were four up) and, for their glaring misses, Jermain Defoe, Jack Rodwell and PvA – I’ll spare John O’Shea, whose header was less a badly missed chance than a decent attempt.

Just for fun, guess the score. Have a go whoever you support but just make sure the correct response makes up for there being no prize by having the digit after Sunderland bigger than the one that follows Palace.

Ha’way the Lads. And let Big Sam be the one mocking any idea that Palace’s defeat was undeserved.