• Existing user of old message board?

    Your username will have transferred over to this new message board, but your password will need to be reset. Visit our convert your account page, to transfer your old password over.

Selhurst Park - 100 Years

Great pictures.

Many memories but my first stand out would be the on pitch celebrations when we beat Fulham 3-2 to get promoted to the top flight for the first time.

The other was of course the on pitch celebrations and the off pitch crush when we beat Burnley 2-0 to go up as champions.

So many, but the Jim Cannon goal that saw us go top when we beat Ipswich 4-1 was one of the best goals I can remember seeing us score, and the misery of the Scouser that had got into our stand when our equaliser went in on Crystanbul night will live long in the memory.
 
I’ve seen 50 of those years!!

The excitement of being inside the ground for my first few games even though it was only against the likes of Rotherham Mansfield and Hereford have stayed with me for life and why I was hooked straight away
Myself and a mate even cycled as kids one close season in the 70’s just to peep through the gates at the top of the holmesdale we were missing it so much
 
My first game in 1960 when we beat Accrington Stanley 9-2. The night we won promotion beating Burnley 2-0, and then going top of division one by beating Ipswich 4-1
 
Normandie Eagle said:
My first game in 1960 when we beat Accrington Stanley 9-2. The night we won promotion beating Burnley 2-0, and then going top of division one by beating Ipswich 4-1
Click to expand...
Great memories, that massive sea of heads and the noise coming out of the holmesdale from my view in the new stand enclosure against Burnley was mindblowing

Our old ground might have just been a mass of concrete, iron and barbed wire back then, but it still had a certain beauty about it
 
It has to be Burnley '79. Plenty of other good times too.

Looking at those picture makes you realise how green Britain used to be.
 
Incredible colourised pics Guntrisoft
Really helps to make old black and white pics feel more relevant and recent
 
I really don't know who we were playing when Dad took me to my first match at Selhurst. It was in the late 50s and, as became our normal routine every other week, we travelled by bus from Wallington. We always went to the same spot on the Holmesdale terrace where he would meet his brother. He'd sit me on a barrier to get a better view, but I was more interested in scavenging round for used beer bottles to return to make a few pennies.

I loved the noise, the smells and the sense of excitement in the air. When the floodlights came on I thought it was magical. He often wanted to leave before the final whistle so we could catch the bus home and many a time a big cheer would go up and we'd have to guess whether the scorer was us or them.

It's very strange, but even after more than 60 years I can still picture us going to those games like it was last week.
 
You used to be able to smell burgers and onions cooking from Rossi’s Refreshments and Bovril wafting around at Selhurst Park. Now you might get some fruity vape blowing in the wind.
 
Last edited:
Selhurst is named after the Old English for "dwelling in a wood", or possibly 'dwelling where willows grow'; the name is first recorded in 1225.

Croydon - As the vast majority of place names in the area are of Anglo-Saxon origin, the theory accepted by most philologists is that the name Croydon derives originally from the Old English croh, meaning "crocus", and denu, "valley", indicating that, like Saffron Walden in Essex, it was a centre for the cultivation of saffron.
 
I was doing a bit of research and it turns out that 'Pepe' the Portuguese defender made his debut in this photo.Screenshot 2024-08-30 at 17.08.00.webp
 
Guntrisoft said:
What's your greatest memory at Selhurst?
Click to expand...

First game I went to, I think 1978 or 79. I remember going into the Holmsdale. I had heard about this place from my older brother and him and his mates used to go but wouldn't let me go with them. So I decided to go on my own. Got there really early and waited, and waited, it was a sunny Saturday afternoon and I still remember the smell of the old burger trader outside. Burgers in water with some form of boiled onions. Flour all over the stale bun but it was magic. As more and more people came to the ground and it started to fill up I made my way down behind the goal. It was magic. Have no idea who we were playing but I was just so happy that day. To be fair I was happy we were the team in the fancy white kit with the red and blue stripe, looked so cool.

What I didn't know was that my mum knew I had gone and my uncle who was a fan and stood midway up the terrace was told to keep an eye on me. I only found that out years later. I was so proud to have gone there and watched the game on my own (I was around 7 years old). Could you imagine that now lol. We only lived by Birkbeck station but it seemed like I went so far away. What an adventure it was. So vibrant and loud. All these blokes shouting and singing and swearing. I loved every second of it... the rest is history.
 
My Mum used to say that my brother and I first went to Palace before we started school: so, 1953/54. There was only the one stand, designed by Archibald Leitch. He designed Fulham’s old stand too. We always stood at the Holmesdale end. Then, it had concrete terracing about half/ two thirds of the way up and the rest was a steep grassy bank. I can clearly remember early or late season, families having picnics on there before the game started.

There was no crowd segregation, so visiting fans moved freely from one goal end to the other according to which way the teams were playing. Except when Millwall came to town, ther was never trouble. As kids, we went down to the front. Big crowds is another strong memory. Getting soaking wet is another one.

There were people in the houses along the roads leading to the ground that made a bit of money by charging for safe bike parking in their gardens during matches! I think, 6d.

This also means the ground was only thirty years old when I first went. Difficult to reflect on that!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top