LOL

Cant wait to see the pictures
I was lucky and had a season ticket in the old stand that year.I remember turning up at 6-30...gates closed and thousands milling around outside
After the game,drinking until about 2am in the supporters club....all the players coming in to a hero's welcome.....Venables carried in to chants "Some say God but we say Venables" (how times change)
Also remember next day on T.V. as MUFC team left hotel for cup final,thousands(?) of Palace fans celebrating (croyden hotel?) and drowning out the noise from the MUFC fans

Gerry Queen,Steve Kember,Don Rogers,Peter Taylor,Kenny Sansom,Ian Wright.....First match in 1969,"Fedora" Cup run,1977 Wrexham,1979 Burnley,1990 Scousers and Wembley first game....fantastic memories to blot out all the cr@p....many more to come

You lot make me feel very old - but I suppose I am! I was nearly 25 on that glorious Friday night in 1979. I went, as I had been doing for the last 12 years or more (first game was way back in December 1963) with a whole load of mates to stand on the Holmesdale. We thought we were going to be stuck at the very back where the terracing ended so you were actually lower than the people in front of you but as more and more people came in we got moved forward 'til we could almost see most of the pitch. And what a game! Yes, that definitely was the highlight for me. Villa Park on 1990 nearly matches it but that game saw us become champions - the only thing we'd ever won before was the Third Division (South) in 1920! That is not to devalue the fabulous performance of the youth team winning the F.A. Youth Cup in the two previous years but this meant going up to the First Division with a team which was capable of beating the best.
We went on to the Fountain Head and manged to down several pints before going back to a mate's flat in Thornton Heath for champagne and goodness knows what else. I then drove back to Coulsdon

Only a few months later, we proved we could beat the best. The night before the Ipswich game in September that year I overdid the drinking and ended up in Croydon General with a suspected perforated ulcer. It was nothing more than mild alcohol poisoning but they wanted to keep me in for another night. No way! I discharged myself, got
myself home only to find my flatmate was out and I had no keys to get in, 'phoned my ex-girlfriend who came to my rescue and we got to Selhurst just in time for the start of that great match when we ended up top of the League for the first time ever.
That goal by Ian Walsh in the Burnley game was unforgettable because it flew off his head into the net - great cross from Vince - and it ended the tension, but the most memorable goal at Selhurst for me was that one by Jim Cannon, the fourth against Ipswich that day in September 1979.
There, I could go on for ages but that's what we old fogeys do best!

I brought tickets with my brother to go to the Burnley game. It was originally a match to be played in the middle of January but was postponed. The box office told us that the tickets would be valid for the rearranged match but didn't know when it would be played. Disappointment changed to elation when we later realised that the tickets for a meaningless January fixture soon turned out to be hotter than Cup Final tickets. Our seats were just right of the directors box and we had a great view of the team when they came up to the director's box to celebrate with 50000 fans who had spilled onto the pitch. The nearest I've seen to this occasion being repeated was the successful playoff against Blackburn. We returned home later that evening to see goal highlights and celebrations which were shown on the late News bulletin. Sadly, this news footage (as far as I'm aware) has never been shown again . . . unless someone out there knows different.

Me and my mate Dave were both 12 and we always went down the front of the Whitehorse lane end, banging the advertising hoarding and eating Monkey nuts, no change on this night as we were right at the front just to the right of the Goal. My main memories were Stewards shouting for everyone to “squeeze up” so they could get more people in at the back!!! At the final whistle we charged onto the pitch with our main aim being to get to the Centre Spot which we just about managed to do. I seem to remember the concrete dugout collapse with the weight of the people standing on it or is this just my memory playing tricks on me? Anyway it’s great to be able to say “I was there”.

I persuaded my old man and younger brother to come with me - they were gooners but had a soft spot for Palace as we used to live in Thornton Heath. I was living on the Isle of Sheppey at the time and due to the unreliability of the local buses and British rail we had to leg it from Norwood Junction. As we got halfway up the Holmesdale my brother and I left my old man behind. We were two of the last to get in the ground before the gates shut. I persuded the gate man to open the gate so I could look for him but he was nowhere to be seen. After the game we couldn't fully enjoy the celebrations as I knew he would be waiting for us outside the ground. He had spent the evening in the Clifton Arms (I think) and even today, some 24 years later he doesn't let me forget about his lock out at Palace!

Aki Aki Aki Oi Oi Oi