Chapter 941 - 941: Four Years Today

At 3 o'clock Emma's mother turned the Queen on and nobody was allowed to speak. Emma's father slept through the second half of it with his mouth open and the crutches sliding down the fire surround a centimetre at a time.

My mother rang at 20 past 4. She was at Sheila's. Sheila had done a turkey crown, and my mother had views on it, which she kept to herself at 1 end of the phone and shared at the other.

Mrs Kaur had come round with a cake and a second copy of the photograph from Old Trafford, framed, for Sheila. Sheila is in the back of it with her mouth open, and Mrs Kaur thinks it is lovely of her. I could hear Sheila in the background saying it was not.

Then my mother asked who it was on Wednesday. I said Cardiff, and she already knew who managed Cardiff.

"Your Steve sacked him at Christmas," my mother said. "I hope he has forgotten."

The hotel at Wembley had a tree in the lobby the height of 2 floors. Every 1 of my players came in under it between 6 and 7 with a carrier bag of something from home.

Sakho had a foil tray the size of a door that his family had sent for the kit room, and he carried it to Deano personally. Neves had his mother on his phone from Portugal, and he walked her round the lobby so she could see the tree.

I named the team at 8, after they had eaten, in a function room with a carpet the colour of mince pies.

CRYSTAL PALACE: Pope. Ward, Dann, Tarkowski, Chilwell. Højbjerg, Rodríguez, Grealish. Bowen, Pato, Perišić.

Bench: Krul, Wan-Bissaka, Sakho, McArthur, Eze, Benteke, Semenyo.

[ALEXANDRE PATO. CONDITION 100%. MATCH SHARPNESS 34%.]

He read his own name and did not move. Scott Dann, next to him, laid a hand on his neck for a second and took it away.

Boxing Day is a different crowd. Half of Wembley was in a Christmas jumper and the other half was in a hat, and the Holmesdale lot had put a Santa hat on the drum.

There were families in the lower tier who had not been to a match since last Boxing Day and would not be at another until the next 1. They were the loudest people in the ground for the first 10 minutes, because nobody had told them you save it.

"GLAD ALL OVER. GLAD ALL OVER."

Neil Warnock stood in front of the away dugout in a club coat with his hands deep in the pockets.

He has managed this football club twice. On the morning of the 27th of December 2014, the day after a Boxing Day defeat, Steve Parish sacked him.

I watched Warnock find the directors' box with his eyes before kick-off, and find Steve in it, and then look away and not look back.

CARDIFF CITY: Etheridge. Peltier, Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett. Ralls, Camarasa. Decordova-Reid, Harris, Hoilett.

They did what Marcus said they would. 5 in a line across their own box, 2 in front of them, 3 up the pitch who never once came back for anybody.

Every throw-in in our half was a reason to send Morrison and Bamba up. Cardiff wanted it in our box, in the air, and they did not care how it got there.

Scott Dann went to the near post 7 times in the first half and won it 7 times. On the 8th Morrison went across him, got there first and headed it at Pope, who held it on his chest.

On the bench Bray went tk with his tongue, twice, and wrote something on the back of his hand.

Beside Dann, James Tarkowski stood on Sol Bamba all half. He came in at the break with a cut through his eyebrow and not a header lost.

Pato had 9 touches in that first half. On the 9th he turned Bamba on the edge of the box and Etheridge got down to the shot. Bamba patted him on the back of the head on the way past. Warnock shouted at Bamba for patting him.

Prrrp.

0-0, and the families in the lower tier had gone quiet.

Clnk. The dressing room door, off its stop. Rebecca had Grealish's minutes on her card before he sat down.

In the 50th minute Grealish had 10 minutes left on Rebecca's 60. I told him to use them on Joe Bennett.

He did, 3 times down the same side, with Jarrod Bowen holding the touchline outside him the way Sarah had drawn it. Bennett had 2 men to watch and could only watch 1.

Grealish went at him standing still with the ball under his foot, and then not standing still. The third time, Bennett went to ground and missed, and Grealish was at the byline.

He pulled it back. Ivan Perišić met it with his right foot from the edge of the box and it hit Morrison on the knee.

The ball went straight up.

Pato was 12 yards out, facing the wrong way, with the ball coming down over his left shoulder. He did not turn round to look at it.

He let it drop past his ear and hit it as it came level with his hip, on the swivel, with the outside of his right foot. It hit the bar on its way into the roof of the net.

Thwack.

1-0.

Wembley made the noise it makes for a goal. Then a second noise on top of it, louder, when the people who had not been sure who that was worked it out.

Pato did not run anywhere. He stood on the penalty spot with his hands knotted behind his neck. Then he turned round to the bench and pointed, not at me, past me, at Bray.

Bray did not stand up. He sat with his hands between his knees, nodded once, and went back to looking at Morrison.

60 minutes. Eze for Grealish.

Cardiff came at us, and when Cardiff come at you it is all at once.

Aron Gunnarsson came on and threw the ball from the corner flag to the penalty spot. The first of those landed on Bamba's head and went past the post. The second landed on Morrison's, and Pope tipped it over.

Joe Ralls got it 25 yards out in the 66th minute with a gap in front of him the width of a door. He bent it round Højbjerg and into the top corner, and Pope went full length and never touched it.

Swsh.

1-1.

Michael Steele, beside me, did not say anything. He watched the replay on the big screen and nodded at it. When Pope looked over at the bench, Steele held both hands up, open.

78 minutes. Benteke for Pato.

Pato came off to the whole of Wembley stood up. Warnock clapped him from the away area, 3 times, hands up near his face. I am not sure Pato saw it.

84 minutes. Semenyo for Bowen.

Corner, our right. Bray stood up for the first time all afternoon.

He had not had those 15 clips on his iPad for 3 days to watch Cardiff defend. He had watched where Morrison goes when it is the other team's corner.

Morrison goes to the near post every time. Bamba goes with whoever is biggest.

Benteke was biggest. Bamba went with Benteke to the penalty spot. Morrison went to the near post, and Højbjerg went to the near post as well and stood in front of him. That was all Bray had asked of him.

Rodríguez put it to the far post. Scott Dann was stood there on his own, with the armband on his left arm, and he headed it down into the ground and over Etheridge's arm.

Thud.

2-1.

Dann did not run to anybody. He walked back towards halfway with his hand flat on the armband, and the Holmesdale end sang his name. Bray took his iPad out and made a note in it.

Prrrp. Prrrp. Prrrp.

Crystal Palace 2 Cardiff City 1.

Warnock shook my hand at the tunnel and his was cold. He said well done. Then he looked over my shoulder at the directors' box again, for longer than he had before kick-off.

He did not raise a hand. Steve, up there, did not raise his either.

In the corridor Pato found me with his boots in 1 hand.

"Dortmund," he said. "The prison." He thought about how to put it. "I said, Deano is the man with the keys. That is all. It is not funny in English."

It was not funny in English. Deano heard about it by 6 o'clock and has been the man with the keys ever since.

Nathan had Pato in front of the Sky camera 10 minutes later. Pato thanked Bray in English and then in Portuguese, and Nathan cut neither.

Leicester beat Manchester City 2-1 on Boxing Day. Marcus had it on the board in the canteen when we came in on Thursday, and he did not write anything next to it.

Steve Parish rang me at 7 on Thursday morning. He talked for 6 minutes before he got to what he wanted, and what he wanted was me at Selhurst Park by 8.

He was at the gate on Holmesdale Road with a takeaway coffee in each hand, 1 for me.

"4 years today," he said. "We lost to Southampton on the Boxing Day, and I told Neil the next morning, in that building. He looked at me twice yesterday. Did you see?"

He pushed the gate before I could answer.

I had not been inside it since May.

They had started on the seats. The Arthur Wait was half bare, the plastic gone from the front 20 rows down to the concrete. What was left was red and blue in patches, with gaps where people had already been and taken theirs.

The Arthur Wait went up in 1969. The man it is named after was the chairman, a builder by trade, and he laid some of those steps himself. Steve told me that standing at the bottom of them with his coffee, as if I did not know it, and I let him.