August 26 2009

Carling Cup

Crystal Palace against Manchester City conjures up possibly the best 90 minute performance that Simon Pophale can remember against a top flight team.

The fact that it was in the League Cup can only serve as a hopeful reminder for Thursday’s encounter.

In our troubled season of 1994-95, when we finished in the last four of all competitions (which was good enough to be relegated for that one season), our run in the League Cup was most welcome. Too often in the league we saw our team get beaten by teams which we could have put to the sword.

It was the first time that we had played the blue half of Manchester in the League Cup and it was an unforgettable performance. Goals from Darren Pitcher, Chris Armstrong, John Salako and even Andy Preece got in on the act in a 4-0 thrashing, as we marched to the semi-finals.

Sadly we came up against a Liverpool side which first robbed us at Anfield with a late, late Robbie Fowler goal before we went down 0-1 in the home leg.

It would be easy to discuss previous matches against City, but I will save that for another day. I will rather focus on the League Cup 2nd round itself. This competition is one we have never excelled in, certainly in its early years.

It took us 5 attempts to win a match in this tournament and in 1964-65 we entered the 2nd round for the first time, beating Tranmere 2-0. We ended up getting to the 4th round that year, losing to Leicester.

Season 1968-69 was notable for our promotion to the top flight but the 2nd round victory over Preston North End saw us go on a run to the quarter finals.

The second round was the entry level for Palace in this competition for the next 10 years and we had the joy of two legged second round matches from 1970-71, when we beat Rochdale 6-4 on aggregate. This started a run which saw us beat Arsenal at Highbury, which was their only defeat of their double-winning season.

We did not win another second round match until 1978-79, when we beat Bristol City, something we would be grateful for come January 2010.

The next season, 1979-80 was the season of the "Team Of The 80s", we recorded our biggest win to date, beating Stockport 8-1 on aggregate.

This was surpassed in the 1990-91 season when we stuck eight past Southend United at Selhurst with both Mark Bright and Ian Wright registering hat-tricks. The aggregate score was 10-1 over the two legs, which still stands as our biggest League Cup victory.

If the 1980s were seen to be our most barren of times in the League Cup, only reaching the third round four times in 10 years, the 1990s by comparison saw us get past the second round seven years in a row until 1997, when the familiar pattern of defeats continued.

It was around this time that the competition altered again and we were back playing in the first round, so the 2nd round opponents could be more illustrious, as Premiers League teams that were not in Europe entered at this stage.

The new century saw us average the fourth round until 2006, with notable wins against Everton in 2001-02 (5-4 on penalties), Cheltenham Town in 2002-03 (7-0), Charlton in 2004-05 (2-1) and a Marco Reich rocket in 2005-06 against Coventry City.

Since then, our only second round appearance was last season, in a performance we would all want to forget away at Leeds United.

You would get good odds on that scoreline from 1995 being repeated in our favour again... but stranger things have happened..... can we get another run in the cup?