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Picture courtesy of Sky Sports News (c)

It was always going to be a gimmick for Sky Sports but it was quite an interesting one. And it gave us a rest from them reporting on what Gareth Bale was or was not doing!

Most fans were looking our for when their team were to appear. Rumours abound that the cameras would not arrive at Palace until around six o'clock in the evening. But who was going to be there? Most teams were putting a fan forward, the kit man or coach driver to be interviewed by the intrepid Sky Sports reporter.

The later the day got and they had still not arrived at Selhurst. Six teams left, five, four ... It was a countdown. Then there were only two, Palace and Man United and it was obvious that the current champions were going to be the final team to be featured.

So off to Selhurst Park at just after six thirty in the evening. A fantastic evening and the pitch looked a healthy vivid green. You could see the work going on in the background, new seats in the main stand and the new TV gantry in the Arthur Wait stand. Who was going to speak on behalf of the club? Step forward none other than Steve Parrish.

Speaking to Sky Sports News reporter Jamie Weir, Steve had this to say;

"Incredible. We weren't really ready for all the things we had to do to the stadium. We weren't prepared for that. The staff have done an incredible job, but we'll be as ready as we can be. It's an old stadium so needs work but we are trying to give everyone something. From the boxes, new lounge, toilets and taken the retail food back. Four completely different stands and we are trying to bring it all together, an enormous amount of work. Some of it we had to do, other bits we wanted to do."

"Excited, nervous, it's a massive step up. The Championship is a massive league but the Premier League is even bigger. Probably four or five levels we are going up in one go. We will be giving it our best shot, we're not quite there with the squad, four or five new signings to come in before the transfer window closes. The new players have to be the right characters for this team. We know where we are probably going to be this season, this club has never stayed in the Premier League, have done in the old Division One. The manager and the players are here all fighting for the cause, ready to die for this club. That's what we want."

"Holloway has two Oscars. You can fluke it once but two promotions to the Premier League. He's a fantastic manager, difficult times ahead we know that but that is where he will do us proud. We hope he can pull it off for us. With Tottenham coming here on opening day, only 4000 seats available for each game the take up has been incredible. We have got the big game to kick off the season which is what we wanted, no disrespect to any of the new teams coming up."

"The stadium is 25% to 30% improvements, we have something to announce next week which will hopefully allow us to spruce up the stadium even more."

Great words from Mr Parrish and proud that he spared the time to give us a little insight into what is going on behind the scenes. Buzzing for the new season after seeing that probably isn't quite the word.