Seventh anniversary of THAT victory over the weed

This week sees the anniversary of a game that will live in Eagles fan’s memories for the rest of their lives, and which will go down as one of the finest moments in the clubs history.

It was a warm afternoon at Selhurst Park; on the face of it, like any other. But this was different; I could taste the anticipation on the long walk up Holmesdale Road with the thousands upon thousands of fans who would eventually cram into the ground.

The Police presence was greater than I had seen before and lined the route to the Stadium; there was the faint murmur of the Police chopper that was circling the area, scouting for trouble.

My mum I sat as we ate chips and she reminisced, as she told me her experiences of Palace-Brighton games she had attended with my uncles through the years since the curious rivalry begun back in the 70’s.

The two sides climbed the leagues together, from Division Three to the old First Division and in that time there were, F.A. Cup replays, career ending tackles, a game that included five penalties (three of which we missed), hooliganism, huge crowds and changes of manager between the two clubs.

This last point was particularly poignant seven years ago as while Allan Mullery had flopped after joining in 1982 from our now deadly rivals (which finally made sense of why the reasons he went to Rome to see the pope!) Crystal Palace legend, no, hero Steve Coppell was now in charge at Brighton giving the sense of this being a special occasion.

The Palace faithful weren’t let down either as we not only won the game, but a star was born.

Four corners in the opening four minutes hinted at Palace’s intentions as they dominated a beleaguered Brighton side who were looking to arrest a 12 game losing streak.

The fourth of those corners was converted by a young unproven forward we had received as part of the deal that took Clinton Morrison to Birmingham for £4.5 million. In all his previous appearances he hadn’t managed to impress the home fans, least of which my uncle who as I remember described him as “awful”.

Of course he no longer holds this view as after and this game was where “AJ’s” love affair with the Eagles crowd started. The diminutive striker was man of the match as Palace romped to a famous 5-0 victory as oddly the home sections of the 21,000 strong crowd chanted “Steve Coppell’s red and blue army”.

You couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for then manager Trevor Francis who as he masterminded probably his most important victory as Palace manager, was still reminded of his un-popularity among Palace fans. Once again my uncle had strong feelings on this matter but I won’t go into that.

As the game ended and ‘Glad all over’ blasted around Selhurst Park nearly everyone stayed where they were stunned, the Brighton fans that filled the Arthur Waite stand were forced to but oh well it added to the occasion and allowed the Holmesdale to rub salt into their wounded pride.

Ultimately the two sides have stood toe to toe since but this game for me was special. It was my first experience of the fixture and everything about the day has stayed with me since and I fell even deeper in love with Palace as a result.

As a match day experience it was only beaten by that magical Play-off matches of the following season in which that same striker who had ignited his Palace career the year before, fired Palace into the big time.