Ahead of Saturday's Hawthorns' clash against Crystal Palace, we caught up once more with Palace fan Sam, who writes for www.rednbluearmy.co.uk/flying-high-magazine. He gives us his views on Palace's season so far, Tony Pulis, Neil Warnock, Saturday's game and more. You can also follow Flying High on Twitter @FlyingHighMag.

Firstly, we must start with the departure of Tony Pulis on the eve of the season, that must have been a huge blow after his success at Selhurst Park last season, your take on what happened?

It was typical Palace, as any Palace fan will tell you. There we were, staying in the Premier League after promotion for the first time and comfortably to boot, with the Manager of the Year, two days before the season started which we were all looking forward to and then boom, Pulis leaves. Whilst it wasn’t as completely out of the blue as some might think, Pulis and Parish clearly weren’t best buddies, it was still a shock coming so close to the start of the season. 

Rumours have done the rounds about smaller budgets than promised, bonuses for keeping us up again this year, the board not wanting to pay oodles of money for players over 30, but whatever the reason, the timing of it was the worst part. As it turned out, we almost nicked a draw away to Arsenal in the first game but the subsequent home defeat to West Ham showed we really needed to sort a replacement sooner rather than later.

It has to be said Pulis never seemed all that comfortable at Palace, he’d admitted he took a lot of persuading to take the job and talked about his beloved Stoke a fair bit, but on the pitch he made us hard to beat, playing good counter attacking football, so of course his departure was a blow. It remains to be seen how much, but we’ll only know that come the end of the season.

With Pulis gone the club turned to an old face in Neil Warnock, how did fans react to his appointment and was it the right one?

When the announcement was made, after being linked with everyone under the Sun, opinion was quite split. Some people thought it was a backwards step after he’d not pulled up any trees at Leeds, some saw him as a Pulis-lite manager that could carry on the work of the former Stoke man.

During his first spell at the club, he was mostly a popular manager. He got the players battling hard, stuck up for his players throughout and we had a successful team under his stewardship. Of course it’s a different situation now, we’re in the top flight and with only a few days with which to work out transfers after his appointment, it wasn’t the easiest return to Selhurst.

In the stands, the Palace fans will all get behind the team whoever is in charge, so at the moment his appointment seems to be OK. It’s been made with an eye to tiding us over for a season or two before appointing a longer-term successor, but again, whether that works remains to be seen at the moment.

It's been something of a mixed start to the season for Palace results-wise, how have performances been?

Up and down really. We played well and deserved a draw against Arsenal as I mentioned, played well up at Newcastle, battled well against Fabregas, Hazard et al against Chelsea and had an absolutely brilliant 70 minutes away at Everton when we won 3-2. But we’ve also had some poor displays too - the defeat at home to West Ham wasn’t enjoyable (especially our defending) and the 0-0 draw against Burnley for which we had our keeper to thank for saving a late penalty, was similarly disappointing.

We have a stronger squad this year than last and the signings of Campbell, McArthur, Martin Kelly plus the homecoming of Wilf have all augmented the team but we’re yet to really string a number of very good performances together, so hopefully there is a lot more to come.

Fans' expectations for the season?

Pre-Pulis leaving, comfortably mid-table was the general consensus and, I must admit, despite being a huge pessimist, I agreed with that. Without him in charge I’m a lot less confident. Boring and clichéd as it is to say though, if we finish one place above the relegation area, I’ll be very happy. 

A few words on 2013/14 - Despite the poor start you made it must have turned out a pretty enjoyable season in the end?

It was unbelievable quite honestly. The start we had, though the performances weren’t awful, was about as dreadful results-wise as you could get and Holloway was shown to be completely out of his depth. But the resurgence under Pulis was sensational.

We were very hard to beat at home and got results against the vast majority of the teams around us at Selhurst which meant away victories at Everton, Cardiff and West Ham were nice bonuses moving us away from the bottom three. 

Everyone had written us off at the start of the season and certainly after the first 10 games, but we deservedly stayed up and got quite a few plaudits for our football on the way. I never would have expected it, especially looking at our squad on paper, but thankfully on the pitch they excelled and finishing 11th was by no means a fluke.

Player of last season?

My vote went to Joel Ward. He’s a right-back by trade but due to injuries and good form spent most of the season at left-back (where he remains this season) and even a couple of games in the centre of midfield. Severely underrated by everyone outside of Palace, he is a fantastic player, never dives in, always calm on the ball and a solid performer every game. 

The actual POTY award went to Julian Speroni, who had a fantastic season in goal and Captain Mile Jedinak was close by too, he was a colossus in midfield.

Villain of last season?

At the time, Vincent Tan’s “Palace cheated” Spy-Gate malarkey probably had him up there, but in light of the Mackay/Moody debacle, he doesn’t look quite so evil now!

Prediction for Palace's season?

It will be tough and I think we’ll finish lower this year. We have a very difficult run-in so I’m quite worried to be honest. I’ll go for 18th and have every Palace fan reading this call me an idiot.

Player to watch this season?

I’ll cop-out and pick two - Scott Dann and Joe Ledley. Neither will get tons of plaudits or column inches, but Dann’s arrival at Palace coincided with the defence looking a hell of a lot better (though he may not play on Saturday due to injury) and Ledley’s all-round ability which helps win the ball and move it forward to our wingers, will prove vital to keeping us up this year, should we manage it.

Prediction for Albion's season?

I think like Palace you’ll spend the majority of the season looking over your shoulder, but I reckon you’ll stay up, even if only by a place or two.

Premier League Champions?

Can’t look past Chelsea. Mourinho’s squad is very strong, Costa is scoring the goals that Torres couldn’t and they know how to close out a game, unlike Liverpool (let’s just mention that 3-3 shall we, that was a fun night!) so I reckon they’ll pick up the title this year.

Relegated?

Palace (boo, hiss), Burnley and QPR.

Prediction and thoughts on Saturday's game?

It’s definitely one of those games that both teams and sets of fans will hope for a win in and I think it’s very hard to predict because both teams are certainly capable of getting the three points. 

My record at the Hawthorns is absolutely abysmal though so with my attendance there, it’s likely to be a home win but I’d take an away point, for sure.

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