Like any football fan I have always believed my team to be one of the biggest in the country and deserving of a place in the Premier League - but lately that belief has faded.

Defeat at Barnsley on Tuesday all but ended the faint dreams we all had of still sneaking in the play-offs and condemned Palace to yet another season in the Championship, which while being a highly entertaining league, just isn't the Premiership.

Next season will be our fifth in a row in the second teir of English football and perhaps it is time to accept that that's exactly where the Eagles belong.

It's hard to accept I know, especially if, like me, one of your first memories is that FA Cup final and then that third-placed finish in 1991 and the subsequent yo-yoing between the top two divisions that followed.

There was always something exciting going on at Palace, whether it be a promotion battle or a relegation dogfight, but since that Super Sunday four years ago when Jonathan Fortune's late header sent Palace down, there has been very little to cheer about.

Under Iain Dowie we should have gone straight back up with the players we had but didn't and Peter Taylor only succeeded in giving us a season and a bit of mid-table mediocrity.

When Neil Warnock took charge there was a glimmer of hope with last season's play-off charge and if Ben Watson's penalty had gone in at Ashton Gate we may well have been going to the Emirates instead of the Keep Moat Stadium for the last away game of the season.

But as it is we have endured another disappointing 10 months with more mid-table mediocrity and struggling finances.

There is very little to boast to your mates about down the pub and part of me cannot help thinking Crystal Palace is just where Crystal Palace should be, and that saddens me.