Turning points in recent club history

M

manoftaste

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Location
Hastings
Country
England
They say football is a game of fine margins. I've just been thinking how very different our situation today would be if it weren't for just 3 crucial goals:
(1) What if Dougie hadn't broken away and scored that goal a couple of minutes from the end at Stockport County in 2001? Palace relegated to 3rd tier. We might still be there.
(2) What if Kevin Phillips had missed that penalty in the play-off final against Watford in 2013? No promotion with 13 successive years in the Premiership.
(3) What if Eze hadn't scored at Wembley last May (or, indeed, if Henderson hadn't saved that penalty)? No FA cup, therefore no Europe this season with the good chance of more Europe next season.
Three brief moments which could easily have been missed, each of which had massive consequences.
 
What if Nigel Martyn had not rushed off his line in the last few minutes of extra time in the 1990 FA Cup and instead allowed O'Reilly to shepperd Hughes away leaving Martyn to save his shot. Palave would have been FA Cup winners and in the Euro Cup Winners Cup which United went on to win. Ferguson would have been sacked. Wright would have probably stayed. The 90s in the EPL would have been very different.
 
Proud to have been there for all 3 moments. You could add Wardy clearing off line very late on against Watford, or Jules wonder save from Deeney in same game.

I am sure there are many other examples, we don't often win things by a country mile.

Maybe, the Conference League final will be the exception......
 
Many have said that Clive Allen’s goal that wasn’t in 1980 at Coventry knocked the stuffing out of us that season, although early in the season we never seemed to recover from that and a few months later the exodus started led by Venables after we’d already lost King Kenny in the summer. We ended up getting relegated and spending the rest of the decade in division 2
 
BromleyMonkey said:
Many have said that Clive Allen’s goal that wasn’t in 1980 at Coventry knocked the stuffing out of us that season, although early in the season we never seemed to recover from that and a few months later the exodus started led by Venables after we’d already lost King Kenny in the summer. We ended up getting relegated and spending the rest of the decade in division 2
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One of my earliest Palace memories. Was also at the QPR FA Cup game a season? later when he scored and we tore the place up.
 
manoftaste said:
They say football is a game of fine margins. I've just been thinking how very different our situation today would be if it weren't for just 3 crucial goals:
(1) What if Dougie hadn't broken away and scored that goal a couple of minutes from the end at Stockport County in 2001? Palace relegated to 3rd tier. We might still be there.
(2) What if Kevin Phillips had missed that penalty in the play-off final against Watford in 2013? No promotion with 13 successive years in the Premiership.
(3) What if Eze hadn't scored at Wembley last May (or, indeed, if Henderson hadn't saved that penalty)? No FA cup, therefore no Europe this season with the good chance of more Europe next season.
Three brief moments which could easily have been missed, each of which had massive consequences.
Click to expand...
I often used to think about, almost like a recurring nightmare, the equalising goal Danny Higgingbottom scored against us v Soton in 2005 that made it go to the wire for relegation that season. I can still see it now, the way the ball bobbled across the 6 yard box, missed by everyone for him to smash it home.

Had we stayed up that year, it could have set off a chain of events that had us avoid administration years later. Obviously it all came good in the end.
 
manoftaste said:
They say football is a game of fine margins. I've just been thinking how very different our situation today would be if it weren't for just 3 crucial goals:
(1) What if Dougie hadn't broken away and scored that goal a couple of minutes from the end at Stockport County in 2001? Palace relegated to 3rd tier. We might still be there.
Click to expand...
Or, perhaps even more remarkable and to the point, what if, seconds before Dougie scored, the referee hadn't missed that blatant hand ball by David Hopkin in his own area?
 
ASCPFC said:
One of my earliest Palace memories. Was also at the QPR FA Cup game a season? later when he scored and we tore the place up.
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I know we lost and it was heartbreaking at the time, but what an occasion and atmosphere it was, and we were packed in like sardines which the younger generation will never experience, probably for the best safety wise, but it did generate incredible atmospheres
 
BromleyMonkey said:
I know we lost and it was heartbreaking at the time, but what an occasion and atmosphere it was, and we were packed in like sardines which the younger generation will never experience, probably for the best safety wise, but it did generate incredible atmospheres
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The last time I remember the ground being anything like the old days, was the Playoff final against Blackburn. I don't know the official attendance figure but there were more.
A turning point to which we've probably gone full circle twice since. Hard to keep up with Palace turning points with our up and down past.
Oh, how we craved for stability and even just survival. Look his spoilt we are now.
I feel like something will go wrong now I said that.
 
Wrexham our last game of the season needed to win by 2 , and hope they didn't beat Mansfield in there last game , to go up , and palace being palace , 2 up with 10 to play 2-2 with 5 mins left 4-2 full time ,

walking the streets listening to the radio for there score on Saturday , punching a hole in my mates ceiling when I jumped punching the air full time , that was the turning point for me in the last 50 years
 
martinelliff said:
What if Nigel Martyn had not rushed off his line in the last few minutes of extra time in the 1990 FA Cup and instead allowed O'Reilly to shepperd Hughes away leaving Martyn to save his shot. Palave would have been FA Cup winners and in the Euro Cup Winners Cup which United went on to win. Ferguson would have been sacked. Wright would have probably stayed. The 90s in the EPL would have been very different.
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Came here to say this. Exactly.
 
Paul Salvage said:
For me the biggest turning point in our “recent” history was being denied a place in Europe after the 90/91 campaign. This in effect caused the break up of arguably our best ever team. To reinstate Liverpool ahead of us despite their continued ban sums up the corruption that was and still is evident in football today.
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Excellent point Paul, especially as it was their scummy fans who caused the ban in the first place. They should’ve at least made the decision at the start of the season not during it when we thought we were in
 
BromleyMonkey said:
Many have said that Clive Allen’s goal that wasn’t in 1980 at Coventry knocked the stuffing out of us that season, although early in the season we never seemed to recover from that and a few months later the exodus started led by Venables after we’d already lost King Kenny in the summer. We ended up getting relegated and spending the rest of the decade in division 2
Click to expand...
I can remember we all stood their stunned, it was right in front of us, our end, also Punchys goal against Norwich.
 
martinelliff said:
What if Nigel Martyn had not rushed off his line in the last few minutes of extra time in the 1990 FA Cup and instead allowed O'Reilly to shepperd Hughes away leaving Martyn to save his shot. Palave would have been FA Cup winners and in the Euro Cup Winners Cup which United went on to win. Ferguson would have been sacked. Wright would have probably stayed. The 90s in the EPL would have been very different.
Click to expand...
In my memory, O'Reilly slides in to block Hughes shot but the ball almost travels through or under his legs. I remember seeing it back at the time and thinking, normally it's a case of if only the defender had got there a fraction earlier, but in this case he'd have blocked the shot even if he'd arrived a fraction later.

My memory might be playing tricks on me, though, and I can't bare to look at the footage again to clarify!
 
mtp1958 said:
Wrexham our last game of the season needed to win by 2 , and hope they didn't beat Mansfield in there last game , to go up , and palace being palace , 2 up with 10 to play 2-2 with 5 mins left 4-2 full time ,

walking the streets listening to the radio for there score on Saturday , punching a hole in my mates ceiling when I jumped punching the air full time , that was the turning point for me in the last 50 years
Click to expand...
I can remember listening to updates on the radio (those were the days). That purple patch from the recently-signed Jeff Bourne made all the difference
 
BromleyMonkey said:
Excellent point Paul, especially as it was their scummy fans who caused the ban in the first place. They should’ve at least made the decision at the start of the season not during it when we thought we were in
Click to expand...
Which is precisely what they did, and why.

The thing that strikes me is how little fuss we made, publicly at least. Compare that to all the noise around us challenging UEFA over our demotion to the conference league last summer.

Different times, I suppose.
 
For me, the major turning point in recent times was the appointment of Pulis.

When Parish and Co bought Palace we had no behind the scenes infrastructure at all, everything was hand to mouth. Now, we have a top training ground, academy, and are expanding selhurst. Moreover, we have scouting and medical departments and so on. Even if we get relegated, we are unrecognisable as an organisation to the one that came up. All that stuff was part of the Parish plan from the outset, and he was quite open about not spending all the windfall we got from promotion on players etc when these projects were so crucial to the health and viability of the club. He all but said we don't mind if we go down, we'll treat this as an unexpected bonus season and use it to fund rebuilding Palace so it can last.

Holloway was always pushing water up a hill trying to recreate his open, free flowing Blackpool side at Palace. He resisted the temptation when he first arrived, recognising that Freedman had built a counter attacking side and that only a fool would tinker. The following summer, however, he tried to put his mark on it. Then add in a mad summer trolley dash undertaken without any proper recruitment structure, in the very short period left after the play offs, in which all your rivals have a big headstart on you.

The end result of all these factors was a Palace team that looked like a group of victims. Absolute lambs to the slaughter.

Pulis changed everything by installing the conservative, hardworking ethos that has been our touchstone ever since. As a result, not only did we stay up, we did it so comfortably that our better players could actually enjoy the last month of the season and show how good they were. They had a method to believe in, which worked, and which provided a platform for them as individuals. We have never been in serious relegation trouble since. Most years at least one of the promotion sides look like we did, cannon fodder. Often it's two of them. Some will yo-yo a bit, but I see no reason to think that one horrible year in the top flight leads to a long term stay next time around. In other words, if we'd have gone down that first year there's no reason to think we'd have come back up and stayed sooner or later. It's all happened because we got over that massive hurdle at the time. And that's down to Pulis.

He deserved to lose the court case, and to be unpopular with us, but he is also critical in everything we are now.
 
TheBigToePunt said:
In my memory, O'Reilly slides in to block Hughes shot but the ball almost travels through or under his legs. I remember seeing it back at the time and thinking, normally it's a case of if only the defender had got there a fraction earlier, but in this case he'd have blocked the shot even if he'd arrived a fraction later.

My memory might be playing tricks on me, though, and I can't bare to look at the footage again to clarify!
Click to expand...
Whenever I watch it back (and I may have rose tinted glasses) I feel like all three Palace goals were well worked, but all of United's were cheap, easy goals. I certainly think we could've stopped at least two out of three, I think the 2nd and 3rd from memory.
 
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