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Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Crowds cheer on Crystal Palace at victory parade
Thousands of Crystal Palace fans have lined the streets to congratulate their football heroes at a victory parade following their FA Cup win. The route near Palace's Selhurst Park stadium in south London became a sea of blue and red as cheering and chanting fans blew horns and waved flags, and residents along the route displayed banners and scarves in their windows. The players showed off their trophy during a 45-minute long open-top bus parade, before a large a "party on the pitch" event inside the ground. The team were celebrating winning the first major trophy in their history, following their 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on 17 May. Many fans told the BBC it was a day they had been waiting for all their lives. Following the parade, fans with tickets filed into the stadium to see the team lift the cup once again, as confetti rained down on the players. Manager Oliver Glasner told the crowd: "I couldn't be more pleased to manage a club like Crystal Palace with fans like you guys. "We had tough moments but you were always behind us." Goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who saved a penalty in the final, told fans the celebration was "phenomenal", adding that supporters "deserve it". "Look at the turnout; they have been our 12th man all season," Henderson said. Following speeches and the club's end-of-season awards, fireworks were set off and the club's anthem Glad All Over blasted from the PA system as the players left the stage. They were later seen high-fiving some of the fans as they left the pitch while more red and blue confetti rained down. Earlier, local resident and Palace fan Billy Thompson - a Team GB goalkeeper in the 2012 Paralympics - told the BBC the parade was "fantastic" and gave him "goosebumps". He said it felt "surreal" to see the trophy in such close proximity. "I've enjoyed this more than the Paralympics... because this is Crystal Palace. We deserve this. This is our time now," he said. He said the crowd was at least eight-deep at one point. "There were kids everywhere, standing on walls... it was lovely; a lovely family experience... really good atmosphere." Students Luka Chijiutomi-Ghosh and Talya Kuleshnyk arrived long before the parade to secure a good spot near the start of the route. Ms Kuleshnyk, 18, said she expected the atmosphere to be "electric". She said: "I only became a Crystal Palace fan a few months ago and since then I'm really invested. "I love the games and it's just incredible to see that they've won a trophy and it's mad to see all these people come out. I'm so excited and it's amazing." Mr Chijiutomi-Ghosh, also 18, an Eagles fan growing up in Thornton Heath, joked that Ms Kuleshnyk had been "quite spoilt". "I've tried to explain the previous years of finishing 12th and having never won a trophy; nothing," he said. "I'm so happy that there's actually a parade in south London... It's unreal. I feel like I'm dreaming." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Crystal Palace beat Man City to win FA Cup & end wait for major trophy
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Following Sheffield United in the hope of playoff success is a lifetime of hurt
Saturday's game against Sunderland will be Sheffield United's fifth playoff final. They have lost each of their previous four. I was at every one. Technically this was United's second experience of playoff misery having lost a relegation playoff against Bristol City in 1988, but by the mid-1990s the Football League post-season had developed into A Thing, thanks in large part to the decision to move the final to Wembley in 1990. Having missed the 1993 FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday – the true Year Zero of United's Wembley misery – this was my first trip to the national stadium. Eight Ashdowns piled into a rented Ford Transit minibus and chugged down the M1, flags streaming from the windows and a makeshift 'SUFC' scrawled in red electrical tape on the back. Hope was also a passenger, and with good reason. United had won 1-0 at Selhurst Park in December and Jan Åge Fjørtoft had inspired a confident 3-0 thumping in the return fixture at Bramall Lane in early April, six weeks before the final. We arrived in the Wembley car park before the team bus and had time for face-painting (not for me because, you know, I was 16) and a quick kick-about under the twin towers before roaring the team out in a cascade of red and white balloons. That was the high point. Memory suggests we barely had a shot. Highlights suggest Palace didn't either. But in the dying seconds David Hopkin looked to curl one … and I still can't listen to Glad All Over without wincing. I remember very little about the ride home, other than it taking what felt like several months to get out of Wembley and someone – probably my dad – suggesting we'd comfortably 'outballooned' the Palace fans, some elite-level straw-clutching that speaks to a lifetime of being a Blade. So a great day out but United didn't really turn up. That would become a theme. Hope was in the air once more in 2003 at the end of a campaign that will for ever be known at Bramall Lane as the 'Triple Assault' season. Strong Portsmouth and Leicester sides had romped away with the top-two places but Neil Warnock's United had finished third, had been to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, denied by that David Seaman save at Old Trafford, and to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup, where they had beaten Liverpool at home and gone to extra time at Anfield. They were also coming into the playoff final on the back of one of the great Bramall Lane nights – the 4-3 semi-final win over Nottingham Forest. The family made a weekend of it in south Wales. I travelled over from London for the day, the 'no way am I getting my face painted' 16-year-old having matured into the 'no way am I spending a weekend in Wales with my family' 22-year-old (they were both idiots). While in 1997 the misery had been a last-gasp dagger to the heart, this time it got stuck straight in: 1-0 down after six minutes, 3-0 down by half-time. I remember seeing the players physically slump after the second goal; following a season of so many backs-to-the-wall escapes and unlikely comebacks, there was an air, on and off the pitch, of 'We just can't do this again.' And we didn't. That said, there's still part of me that wonders what might have been if Michael Brown had scored his penalty at the start of the second half. I'm pretty sure Hope had left the building at this point. Six years on from the Triple Assault, Warnock had finally taken United up but failed to keep them there, leading to the disastrous Bryan Robson interregnum, before the line was restored by the appointment of Kevin Blackwell, Warnock's former assistant. Looking back, it's a wonder this United side made the playoffs, still less believable they went into the final day of the season with a chance of claiming an automatic spot. The plan of giving the ball to David Cotterill and hoping for the best had, to general surprise, largely worked, and a run-of-the-mill Preston had been dispatched with little drama and even less panache in the semi-finals. But by now a sense of doom was creeping in as Wembley approached. My abiding memory of the final is the weird floating club crest curtains that hovered over the pitch before the game. They seem to have been around before finals between 2008 and 2013, and created a strange dreamlike quality to proceedings. The memory of them makes me feel slightly sick. As for the match itself: Wade Elliott scored a screamer after 13 minutes and then nothing happened. So deeply forgettable was the game that no one in the family seems to remember who else was there, though I have a memory of me and my brother sitting there increasingly miserable as the inevitable played out. But in the grand scheme of things this a forgettable trauma, a sprained ankle amid the broken bones. Somehow the nadir was yet to come. While other finals had provided a sort of Technicolour torture, this was concrete grey. A patched-up, impossible-to-love United team, Wembley at its soulless worst, a match that lives in the memory as having been played under glowering skies regardless of the actual weather. I'm told – and I had clearly blocked this out – that most of the Ashdown clan had crammed into my tiny north London flat before the game, which will have injected absolutely no bonhomie into proceedings. And, to no one's great surprise, it was another futile afternoon – 90 minutes again Palace, 90 minutes against Wolves, 90 minutes against Burnley, and now 120 minutes against Huddersfield, and not only no goals but no sign of a goal, no hint of a goal, no suggestion of a goal. After the dourest 0-0 you're ever likely to see, Neill Collins, in converting United's second spot-kick in the shootout, did at least become the first United player to put the ball in the net at Wembley since Alan Cork in 1993, 19 years and almost seven hours of football earlier. But still there was new pain to be found. Huddersfield missed their first three penalties yet somehow United conspired to lose 8-7, goalkeeper Steve Simonsen blasting the 22nd and final spot-kick into the stratosphere. While Simonsen's penalty blipped gently on Nasa's radar on its journey into the far reaches of the solar system, disaffection stuck around, with United mired in League One and going nowhere. It would be four years, featuring playoff semi-final defeats by Yeovil and Swindon, before Chris Wilder finally shook the club to its senses. Which brings us neatly on to Saturday. It'll feel very different – it was only when digging through old photos for this piece that it sunk in that this will be the first playoff final without my dad, who died in 2022. And for a variety of reasons, few other Ashdowns can make it. So it will be a flying visit, just me and my brother zipping down the M1 and back, no frills, no flags but, for the first time in a while, that familiar old feeling in the pit of the stomach that this might just be our year.
NBC Sports
18-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Rebecca Lowe: I'll never get over Crystal Palace's FA Cup final triumph
Rebecca Lowe answers Tim Howard's and Robbie Mustoe's most pressing questions from Matchweek 36, including her thoughts on Trent Alexander-Arnold getting booed, Nottingham Forest, Arsenal's title chances, and more. It was everything. Everything I had ever hoped for and dared to dream about. A feeling that I wasn't quite sure what to do with and, less than 24 hours on, still don't know. The day truly had it all: Wembley Stadium bathed in the kind of sunshine I remembered from FA Cup finals of my childhood, red and blue flags waving in a frenzy as kick off drew closer … 'Glad All Over' ringing out in desperate hope—not yet jubilation. For me, this day was about the family and friends who I used to go to Palace with 20 and 30 years ago, but also about my husband, who might have played for Brentford and was a Bee through and through but on this day was all Palace … and about a 9-year-old boy—our son Teddy, who was the same age I was back in 1990, the first time Palace got to the FA Cup final. That day 35 years ago for me and this day for Teddy couldn't be more different, and for that I'll always be grateful. My dad is 76 and has waited his entire life for this moment. We couldn't sit together, so we organized pre- and post-match meetups. Just sitting in his company at a Turkish restaurant on Wembley High Street four hours before the game, thinking about the hundreds of treks around the South Circular on Saturday mornings and Tuesday nights back in the day, I just had a strong feeling that the stars were aligning. This really felt like it was going to be our day. And every message I received said the same. But as a Palace fan—and actually as any football fan who's been through the mill—you dare not trust that feeling for fear of the potential pain that lies in wait. After all, this was Manchester City and the best manager in the world. Walking out to our seats, Wembley looked beautiful. I'd watched Palace there in the 1990s a few times: at the Zenith Data Systems Cup final victory over Everton ('When Geoff goes up to lift the ZDS Cup, we'll be there…') and the First Division Play Off finals that ended both ways, and then in 2013 when once again Palace reached the Promised Land of the Premier League. And as much as being a member of the best league in the world means a great deal to me (not least because I get to talk about them every week at work), I have been in love with the FA Cup my whole life. It just means more than any record finish in the league. This club is in my soul. It has permeated every part of my life. It has been as constant as my family; I've loved it longer than most of my dear friendships. I struggle really to explain why it means so much. I guess it's the community it represents. As a 9-year-old girl in 1990, Palace welcomed me in. As a teenager, it was the place I felt at my happiest. It's what has bonded my dad and I through the years … whether that was the regularity and rhythm of the home games for decades or the annual away trips to places like Sheffield United and Huddersfield Town when we'd leave at the crack of dawn and return way past my bedtime. I didn't realize it was happening at the time (does any young person?), but on reflection, Crystal Palace was seeping deeper and deeper into who I was. The club is in the very fibers of my identity. The people, the history, the narrative have remained a running accompaniment to every chapter of my life. Like everyone, there have been great chapters and tough chapters, but the constant has been Palace—a source of hope, love and now fulfilment. There were tears during 'Abide With Me,' tears when the players came out and tears again when the referee blew his whistle after the agonizing 10 minutes of added time. I tried to ask myself why I was crying. I think if you're lucky enough to have one, it's one of those rarest of moments in your life where happiness simply peaks. A feeling so overwhelming, it is impossible not to crumble a little. A post shared by Rebecca Lowe (@rebeccalowetv) As for the game itself, what a final. I can rarely remember a Palace match where every single member of the team played to their maximum. Whether they started or came on, the level of concentration, selflessness and fitness was incredible. Oliver Glasner is special, and he is now our greatest ever manager. Sure, we rode our luck, big time. If the Dean Henderson handball had been against us, I would have been devastated—I admit to that—but this is the game we're all in. Strange decisions sometimes go your way. Henderson's performance all day will live long in the memory. As will his serenading of the Palace fans in the after party later that night. We were so lucky to be present to meet the players and witness their joy during the finest moment of their careers so far. Seeing Teddy wearing his Palace shirt with Eddie Nketiah on the back being hugged by the man himself and then watching as Nketiah placed his FA Cup winners medal over my son's neck for a photo was simply other-worldly. Ted will never forget his kindness, not for the rest of his life. I thank Eddie Nketiah and all the Palace players and staff for truly making 9-year-olds', 44-year-olds' and 76-year-olds' dreams come true. That takes some doing. On the final whistle, the moment is hard to describe. Elation, jubilation and disbelief are about as close as I can manage. Pure overwhelming happiness. I said beforehand that supporting a team like Palace means you rarely get days like these, and if you do, it will make up for decades of pain. I can assure you that sentiment is true. I genuinely don't think I'll ever get over this day. Right now, I don't care if we never win another trophy, I feel complete. May 17th, 2025, already feels too long ago and one I will revisit in my mind forever. Thank you, Crystal Palace Football Club—my lifelong love.
Metro
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
'As a Crystal Palace fan I'd swap the FA Cup for Premier League stability'
Crystal Palace take on Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday. It will be either the greatest or worst day of my life so far. The Eagles have been waiting for this moment since they were founded in 1905 (or 1861 depending on what history you follow). The chance to win a first major trophy – no Dad, the 1991 Zenith Data Systems Cup does not count – and play in Europe for the first time ever – again Dad, the Intertoto Cup does not count. Chances like these do not come every day for us. Only twice before have we reached the FA Cup final, in 1990 and 2016, on both occasions losing to Manchester United. Given the current state of the Red Devils, we'd much rather be taking them on instead of the blue-half of Manchester, a club who spent more money in January than we did in the last three seasons combined. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we'll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. I could go to great depths to describe how David will beat Goliath at Wembley, with a sturdy defence marshalled by Marc Guehi and Dean Henderson, while Daniel Munoz and Tyrick Mitchell bomb up and down the wing. Adam Wharton will pull the strings in midfield, behind an attack of Eberechi Eze, who has been scoring for fun this cup run, unlikely hero Ismaila Sarr and, of course, Jean-Phillipe Mateta – ain't no striker better. My dad is in no doubt that we'll be lifting the trophy. Me on the other hand… 'consistently inconsistent' is a phrase I often use to describe Palace's form. Humiliate arch-rivals Brighton at their ground one week, get humiliated 5-1 by Arsenal at home the next. I could not predict what will happen today nor for the sake of my anxiety do I want to. But this isn't really about what happens on the pitch. It's what it means to myself, my dad, the thousands of supporters about to walk up Wembley way and all those across the world who gleefully sing Glad All Over. I didn't get much of a choice regarding what football team I supported. For one, I was born and raised in Croydon – about four miles from Selhurst Park. My dad, born and raised in Dublin, has supported the South London club since the age of seven – specifically since December 16, 1972 when they beat Man Utd 5-0 as he proudly tells me. In my lifetime, I've witnessed the Eagles go into administration twice, get relegated from the Premier League, nearly get relegated to the third tier, win promotion back to the top-flight and stay there for 12 years. During this run, we've never finished higher than 10th or lower than 15th – comfortable but also a little dull to the point where we're almost the Premier League's forgotten team. Great cup runs are a rarity, while other clubs of a similar stature have embarked on European quests or in the case of Leicester City – actually won something. More Trending Sure we've had Alan Pardew's dancing, Andros Townsend's worldie against Man City and Frank de Boer's… actually let's not go there. The point is, always the bridesmaid, never the bride, and even then we've rarely been a bridesmaid. I'd be more than happy for 'consistently inconsistent' to continue. There are worse places to be than mid-table obscurity and no matter what we'll always be the pride of South London, the Selhurst Park terraces home of the best atmosphere in the league. Yet, I would trade every Wilfried Zaha step-over, every Mateta 'Boom' celebration and every victory against Brighton if it meant lifting the FA Cup today. We don't get much to celebrate at SE25. Maybe, just maybe we will soon. For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Why are there no Premier League games today? MORE: Crystal Palace vs Man City: FA Cup final team news and predicted lineups MORE: Why are there no Premier League games on Saturday this weekend?
Metro
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
A Crystal Palace FA Cup win would mean so much more than 10 years of monotony
Crystal Palace take on Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday. It will be either the greatest or worst day of my life so far. The Eagles have been waiting for this moment since they were founded in 1905 (or 1861 depending on what history you follow). The chance to win a first major trophy – no Dad, the 1991 Zenith Data Systems Cup does not count – and play in Europe for the first time ever – again Dad, the Intertoto Cup does not count. Chances like these do not come every day for us. Only twice before have we reached the FA Cup final, in 1990 and 2016, on both occasions losing to Manchester United. Given the current state of the Red Devils, we'd much rather be taking them on instead of the blue-half of Manchester, a club who spent more money in January than we did in the last three seasons combined. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we'll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. I could go to great depths to describe how David will beat Goliath at Wembley, with a sturdy defence marshalled by Marc Guehi and Dean Henderson, while Daniel Munoz and Tyrick Mitchell bomb up and down the wing. Adam Wharton will pull the strings in midfield, behind an attack of Eberechi Eze, who has been scoring for fun this cup run, unlikely hero Ismaila Sarr and, of course, Jean-Phillipe Mateta – ain't no striker better. My dad is in no doubt that we'll be lifting the trophy. Me on the other hand… 'consistently inconsistent' is a phrase I often use to describe Palace's form. Humiliate arch-rivals Brighton at their ground one week, get humiliated 5-1 by Arsenal at home the next. I could not predict what will happen today nor for the sake of my anxiety do I want to. But this isn't really about what happens on the pitch. It's what it means to myself, my dad, the thousands of supporters about to walk up Wembley way and all those across the world who gleefully sing Glad All Over. I didn't get much of a choice regarding what football team I supported. For one, I was born and raised in Croydon – about four miles from Selhurst Park. My dad, born and raised in Dublin, has supported the South London club since the age of seven – specifically since December 16, 1972 when they beat Man Utd 5-0 as he proudly tells me. In my lifetime, I've witnessed the Eagles go into administration twice, get relegated from the Premier League, nearly get relegated to the third tier, win promotion back to the top-flight and stay there for 12 years. During this run, we've never finished higher than 10th or lower than 15th – comfortable but also a little dull to the point where we're almost the Premier League's forgotten team. Great cup runs are a rarity, while other clubs of a similar stature have embarked on European quests or in the case of Leicester City – actually won something. More Trending Sure we've had Alan Pardew's dancing, Andros Townsend's worldie against Man City and Frank de Boer's… actually let's not go there. The point is, always the bridesmaid, never the bride, and even then we've rarely been a bridesmaid. I'd be more than happy for 'consistently inconsistent' to continue. There are worse places to be than mid-table obscurity and no matter what we'll always be the pride of South London, the Selhurst Park terraces home of the best atmosphere in the league. Yet, I would trade every Wilfried Zaha step-over, every Mateta 'Boom' celebration and every victory against Brighton if it meant lifting the FA Cup today. We don't get much to celebrate at SE25. Maybe, just maybe we will soon. For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Why are there no Premier League games today? MORE: Crystal Palace vs Man City: FA Cup final team news and predicted lineups MORE: Why are there no Premier League games on Saturday this weekend?
