30th anniversary today and it nearly went by without a mention. Happy Sir Charlie Palmer Day everyone!
https://youtu.be/c6P29iZlbCM?si=H9tHP8WnQWwMT-aN
Be nice to beat them at least be once more before we all cark it, huh?
Oh how we could do with Mr Palmer in defence.
Terrific player. One of my favourites.
I'm at the stage now where this anniversary upsets me, it's just become shrouded by the unreasonable amount of time since we last met them for a league clash. 30 years!!!! Christ almighty.
Off the top of my head, the longest gap prior to that (leaving aside war time) was 15 years and the other gaps much less than that, often as a result of them dropping below us, not us below them.
Charlie Palmer though, what a player to have in your side, he gets remembered for that goal now but he was as solid a full back as you could wish for.
"Meadow Lane is alive!"
I can tell you that those four lined-up together in the 1st team a grand total of zero times.
Yates, Craig Short and Palmer were regular partners for a good few years (from 1989/90), but Johnson only got selected when one of those was injured initially (from 1991/92), then Yates got a long term injury and Craig Short left just as Johnno became a regular in 1992/93.
Thomas (replacing Platnauer), Yates, Short and Palmer was the best back four in those days, Paris (who was a better left back than Thomas) joined relatively late on and they were then up against the elite forward lines and his injury saw Dryden slot in, who wasn't that great, Chris Short was cover for Palmer mostly, with Norton struggling to overcome his injury.
He did yes, mostly wore the no.2 jersey from around half way through his spell with us.
From a solid core of players, the line-ups became very unsettled from Spring-ish 1992 until Warnock got sacked a year later.
Had Yates not got injured then he might have made just enough difference to get the points we needed to stay up and we may well then have seen a back four of Palmer, Yates, Short and Johnno in the Premier League 1992/93 *sigh*.