I can remember Ian Evans leg being broken by George Best, Seeing Kenny Sansom’s debut, monkey nuts form the old lady on the Holmesdale, having my scarf confiscated at school after promotion form the third division in nineteen seventy - seven, Burnley and the fifty-two thousand, cheese and onion rolls in the Glaziers club, the Flatterer, the team of the eighties, the dissolution of same, the wilderness years, the lifeline club, the hooligans, bricks at Brighton, not rock, the re-emergence in the late eighties, the late push into the play-offs in eighty-nine, the Blackburn game, that Pardew cross, Wright, Bright, the new era, the nine – nil, that semi final at Villa Park, seeing Nigel Martyn in the pub that same night celebrating with his wife, relegation, promotion, some highs, some lows, semi-finals, finals, kits, mirrors, mugs, scarves, knickers, I went away, I came back, I moved away, I returned, I introduced my son to the madness, even my daughter though not her thing, disillusionment with football, too much money, too much corruption, diving, too much anger, hatred, a brief sojourn to egg ball chasing, but I am back, and I am glad to be witnessing something very special, however brief, six games ago, the outlook was bleak, relegation was tangible, more wilderness years loomed, but now, now, we have something, and though I doff my virtual fedora to Roy, Oli G is the real deal…….. How to hang on, not just to the Ezes and Olises, but to persuade this entire squad to give us one more season to see what could happen. It may be a flash in the pan, but somehow, I do not think so, there’s a feeling, a cohesion, a burgeoning swagger. Yes, the lure of money and medals is great and undeniable, football careers are fleeting, but why sit on the bench at Moneybags United when, just possibly, you could be part of something very big, happening right here, right now in South London.

Facts and figures may be a little lost in the ‘Sands’ of time (see what I did there?), but you get the point.

Could we just be the team of the twenties, or at least twenty four/five?

Seconded.

Also nice for me to know that (somewhat) youthful exuberance and enthusiasm isn't conjuring a too rose-tinted anticipation in me!

Let's hope good times are ahead. COYP.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Great post, pretty much sums up my Palace Journey. Would that pub be the Goodies? I was there that night after driving back from Villa park.

I ride a GS scooter with my hair cut neat
I wear my war time coat in the wind and sleet.

I don't think the top clubs will spend big on eze, they all have players in his position. If city come in for olise, he's gone but if they don't, I can see him staying for another season. Salah is staying at Liverpool and with saka at arsenal, I don't see them comming in for him. All the talk is of utd, they've got sancho and Antony on massive wages, how're they getting them off the books ? Might be wishful thinking but I think there's a good chance both are here next season, tho it wouldn't surprise me if city come in for olise.

We old'uns (70 plus) should form a Holmesdale Clique!

I am pushing on and so looking forward to season 24/25 with a manager who has an apparent 'magic touch' in turning also-ran journeymen into dynamic PL players - witness Hughes and Clyne.

We are now being noticed as a creditable member of the Premier League and this improved reputation should stand us in good stead when looking for recruits.

Does the young stripling, Adam Wharton, regret his move when he is now being mentioned as a possible for the Euros?

God bless Roy Hodgson for all he did but just look at Mateta since Glasner arrived!

Our revival has energised me and what with the ladies promoted to the WSL and Bromley making the EFL - a great time to be a Palace fan!

Man and boy Palace since my first game in 1948 sitting on my dad's shoulders

Yes I remember all those things, plus a shot struck so fiercely by Stewart Jump that the ball hit the Portsmouth crossbar with the loudest THWACK I've ever heard, and I swear it was still vibrating minutes later!

This was April 1974, 0-0 at Selhurst Park. Needless to say, we were relegated a few weeks later.

A few weeks prior to the Pompey game was our first-ever Sunday game, as a consequence of the 'rationing' of electricity usage then taking place.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)