Crystal clear goal for Palace: Kamara

Chris Kamara is backing Crystal Palace for the Championship final and beyond.

Chris Kamara and Rob McCaffrey are joined by David Moyes on Goals on Sunday this week, 11am on Sky Sports 1.

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There is always a hangover from falling out of the Premiership.

It can be difficult for players to get their heads around being in the Championship where the atmosphere and the glitz of being the top flight is absent. They have to overcome all that quickly and get down to the job in hand but I would say 75 per cent of clubs have a problem once they drop down - see West Ham, Norwich, Leeds, Southampton etc.

Crystal Palace too suffered a slow start but now they are into their stride and finishing off the season with a rattle and it would take a foolish man to bet against them in the play-offs.

Automatic promotion is beyond them now. Only Watford and Leeds are hanging on to Sheffield United's coat-tails, hoping for them to slip up and Palace are relying on Sheffield, Watford and Leeds slipping up, which is too much to ask.

Iain Dowie wants to get the mentality into his players where all they do is focus is on maintining their current form into, and throughout, the play-offs. He must get them to think that they are adding three more games onto the end of the season - three that they missed out on with their slow start.

If they can do that, then they will go up, if not then the players will have to prepare for another season like this one in the Championship. With this current run, I see them as certainties for the play-off final and they have all the ingredients to go up.

One of those ingredients is the goal-scoring ability of Andy Johnson, for whom this last week must have been a big disappointment.

I said at the beginning of the season that I would be surprised if Sven Goran Eriksson picked anyone from the Championship, and that includes Rob Green down at Norwich, to go to the World Cup.

I say that because Sven has only seen one game in the Championship this year and that was Palace v Reading.  In that game he had chances but didn't take them and that cost him. In the Premiership Sven gets to see the players six, seven or eight times per season but AJ had to be good on his one chance.

Had he banged in a hat-trick against Reading he could have been in the squad for Uruguay but he missed a hat-trick of chances and it was Darren Bent who got the chance to impress.

All Johnson can do now is keep banging on the door by banging in the goals and the likes of Iain Dowie and myself will have to keep singing his praises.

If Palace don't go up this season you would have to say that he will move on but that will be the furthest thing from his mind right now. He must score loads of goals, get Palace up and if Sepp Blatter holds the deadline back for World Cup squad selection, it could give Sven the chance to watch him in the play-offs and pick him.

The final word at Palace though must go to Iain Dowie. What a great job he is doing a what a top manager he is and will be for years to come.

It shouldn't be forgotten that Palace went down on the last day of the season last year and because of everything that he has achieved in his managerial career so far, he will never be short of job offers.

But like Andy Johnson, that is a question for the future, as for Palace the business of returning to the Premiership is the only thing to concentrate on.

CHRIS ANSWERS YOUR E-MAILS

GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT!
Hi Chris, what are your thoughts on the poor standards of football pitches around the country? Jon, Wycombe.

CHRIS SAYS: It is incredible isn't it? 18 months ago I was talking about players playing on bowling greens but now we have gone full circle and they are playing on surfaces as bad as the ones we used to play on.

A lot of this has been caused by the new stadia and the lack of sunlight for the grass. The weather hasn't been that horrific, so it is a strange one, but most of the players have adapted really well. Whether you believe the Chelsea conspiracy theories or not at Stamford Bridge, which is one of the worst pitches, at the end of day both sides look equally comfortable on it.

FOREST ON FIRE?
Hi Chris, I'm a huge Forest Fan and it was great to see such an important victory on Saturday against Swindon. We are still a long way from the play-offs but do you think we can still achieve promotion? From Michael in Derby.

CHRIS SAYS: If Frank Barlow and Ian McParland manage to take Forest into the play-offs it would be a miracle Michael. Forest is a difficult club to manage; a lot of managers have tried and failed but the supporters deserve better.

They are averaging around 20,000 per game. We said Sheffield Wednesday would be the only side that would maintain that sort of crowd in League One but Forest have proved that is not the case.

As I say it would be a mircale but hopefully you can still make the play-offs and never say never. Gary Megson possibly had one or two problems with one or two players but if they are pulling together maybe they can get on a roll.

BRAMALL PAIN
I am a Blades fan and I am getting nervous. Neil Warnock is bringing in striker after striker and we lose at home to QPR. Can you reassure me that we will not throw automatic promotion away or am I rightly concerned that we might end up in the play-offs? Mibbsy, Sheffield.
 
CHRIS SAYS: I think it all boils down to tonight's game. Crewe is a game that should have been a nailed on three points at home but now there is a big doubt in the supporters' minds. I am not sure about any doubts in the players' or Warnock's mind but that will show itself tonight.

If they don't take all three points they will start to panic and psychology will play a massive part for the rest of the season. Let's wait and see.

March could be the right time for people to start suggesting that it might happen because there is still time to address any problems. If this were to have happened in April, there may have been nothing they could do to stop any rot.

You never know, QPR could have been a blessing in disguise. I think they will kill everyone off if they win tonight, and I believe they will win, but if not it will certainly be exciting for everyone at the end of the season.