This season Prostate Cancer UK is the official charity of The
Football League. To celebrate, we've asked bloggers from each of
the 72 clubs to count down their top five strikers to have worn the
No9 shirt, in recognition of the fact that prostate cancer
affects one in nine men.
Golden Eagle: Dougie Freeman is Crystal Palace through and through. Photo courtesy of Action Images
Here blogger James Daly, from fiveyearplanfanzine.co.uk,
selects Crystal Palace's five best No9s… and one to forget!
5. Mark Bright (1986-92)
One half of the famous Wright/Bright combination that fired Palace
to the top flight in 1989 and the FA Cup final a year later, and
former owner of an awesome hi-top fade haircut. Bright made Ian
Wright the goalscorer he was, the big bruiser to his partner's
nippy goalscoring prowess, but ended his own Palace career with an
impressive 114 goals in 286 games. He his sadly metamorphosed into
a rubbish TV pundit - as has Wright.
4. Dave Swindlehurst (1973-80)
With a right leg you'd cut off your own right leg to possess and a
moustache to die for, Dave Swindlehurst was Palace's main man up
front in the late 70s. Like fellow fans' favourite Johnny Byrne, he
was a product of the Eagles' youth set-up and scored one of the
goals that earned promotion to the top flight in 1979 against
Burnley in front of a 50,000-plus crowd at Selhurst Park. The
sporting of 'tashes rose by 55% in south London that
summer.
3. Dougie Freedman (1995-98 &
2001-09)
Freedman wore No9 on his return to Palace from Southampton in 2001
and immediately wrote himself into Eagles folklore by scoring the
goal at Stockport that saved the club's Division One status. A
mercurial forward with a touch as silky as those horrid mid-90s
football shirts, Freedman could create a chance out of anything and
formed a lethal partnership with Clinton Morrison. He's now manager
of Palace, so the legend continues…
2. Johnny Byrne (1956-62 & 1966-68)
He had a barnet like Buddy Holly and footwork as intricate as
Chuck Berry shredding the guitar. Johnny Byrne was, quite simply,
Palace's 1950s pop star, and with a goal total of 101 in 259 games,
it's no surprise. He helped Palace gain promotion to the Third
Division in 1961, all while playing with hair so slick it made (the
few) female fans who turned up swoon. And possibly some of the
men.
1. Peter Simpson (1929-35)
Quite simply no one scored goals at the rate Peter Simpson did for
Palace. Admittedly it was in the 1920s, when defenders wore boots
so heavy they could double as deep sea diving equipment, but 165
goals in 195 games (including 19 hat-tricks) deserves recognition
nevertheless. They didn't actually wear numbers in the 20s, but
Simpson was essentially Palace's No9 - and 10, and 11. Basically,
he was the team.
And the worst…
Ade Akinbiyi (2002-03)
Admittedly, Akinbiyi will probably end up on the worst list for a
few clubs. He deserves his place on Palace's for taking £2.2m out
of our bank account and handing it to Leicester and then playing so
badly we would have paid someone £220m to take him off us. He
managed a total of just three goals in 28 games - and no, that's
not a typo.
Follow James on Twitter at @FYPFanzine