Boom boom boom! Let me hear you say Gayle!

Thousands of Crystal Palace fans were chanting this yesterday to the tune of the Outhere Brothers’ 90s anthem. And no wonder. Their team came from 2-0 down to beat Burnley 3-2, thanks to two goals from home-grown hero Dwight Gayle. The loudest section of any football ground in Britain is the Holmesdale Road stand at Selhurst Park – home to the Holmesdale Fanatics. Every team in London wishes it had support like this but the reason we haven’t is simple. Crystal Palace draws its fans from London’s less fashionable areas: places like Anerley, Penge and Upper Norwood. These places are relatively ungentrified whereas the areas surrounding Arsenal, Chelsea, QPR, even Millwall are now home to more affluent residents, less interested in football. At Palace the support remains staunchly local and yesterday’s performance made me (almost) wish I’d been born in SE25 rather than NW2.