Selhurst Park, June 3, 1989

By Michael Hinge

After a mildly promising start, the 1989/90 season looked grim for Palace. Injuries claimed both influential skipper Geoff Thomas and our first choice goalkeeper Perry Suckling very early on in the campaign and, upset at his frequent (though often justified) substitution, winger Neil Redfearn asked for a transfer citing that he wanted to move back up north due to homesickness. Young Eagles boss Steve Coppell granted Redfearn his request and he made the long sojourn up to the cobbled streets and coal mines of, erm, Watford. He was soon replaced with the mercuiral Alex Dyer who joined for £200k from Hull but, after a promising start and a couple of important goals (including one direct from a corner at Birmingham) he joined Suckling and Thomas on the treatment table and was quickly replaced on the right flank by previously unheard of Eddie McGoldrick, who'd started the season at right-back for Northampton Town.

Palace missed both Suckling and Thomas greatly; the midfield pairing of Alan Pardew and Glenn Pennyfather looked lightweight to say the least and we were often overrun in that area by teams we would normally beat at a canter. As the season ground on with some erratic and inconsistent performances, the physio's job became harder and harder. Soon after Dyer, Pennyfather fell victim of a thigh injury and believe it or not his injury became the turning point of our season. As there was no other experienced centre-mids on the books, Coppell had little choice but to place his trust in David Madden. The unassuming midfielder had joined in the close season on a free from Reading and was pretty much unheard of by the Palace faithful. After a solitary substitute appearance against Watford at the beginning of the campaign he was put in the reserves and later transfer listed by Coppell after he allegedly head-butted team-mate, Mark Harris. Brave, stupid man.

From the very beginning Madden looked a class apart. Very much the complete midfielder - a hard tackler who often chose to bring the ball out of defence rather than simply boot it away as quickly as possible and capable of accurate, long range passes. His arrival in the team sparked an upturn in form that saw us finish the season in third place. In over 30 years of supporting Palace I cannot recall one player having anywhere near as great an influence on the team as Madden did this year and he remains to this day my favourite ever Palace player despite making less than 30 appearances for us.

On to the match. In the usual Palace tradition we'd made it difficult for ourselves in this two-legged play-off final. A nondescript performance at Ewood Park the previous week had seen us enter this game looking to overturn a 3-1 deficit thanks to McGoldrick's late goal and Coppell had a defensive dilemma. Rudi Hedman, after his amazing performances at centre-back over two legs against Swindon was finally found out at Blackburn and was clearly not the long term solution. It was assumed that club captain Gavin Nebbeling would return from suspension and slot in alongside Jeff Hopkins in the centre of defence. However, Coppell had other ideas. Gary O'Reilly had turned in some sterling performances during the season prior to his injury and this match was considered to be too soon for him but Coppell phoned him on the morning of the game asking if he thought he could play. O'Reilly made a last minute decision and lined up with a bandage over his leg. Nebbeling took this badly and the popular South African, by then the club's longest serving player, asked for a transfer and later joined Fulham for £75,000. But Coppell's decision was vindicated by what happened next.

It's difficult to describe the wonderful atmosphere at a full-to-capacity Selhurst Park that sunny June afternoon but there was an air of confidence among the Palace faithful. We somehow KNEW that we'd win this, despite being 3-1 down. Even though Blackburn looked the better side in the opening minutes with the excellent Simon Garner going close on a number of occasions, the belief among the Palace fans never wained and it didn't take long for a goal to come. Madden received a long cross field ball and laid it off to the much maligned Alan Pardew. Pardew made a run towards the Blackburn penalty area unchallenged, then laid off a teasing low cross with the outside of his boot for Ian Wright to slot into the back of the net. Selhurst Park erupted. This was back when away goals counted double and you could see from the demeanour of the Rovers players that they were starting to lose belief. Garner, Blackburn's biggest threat and a fantastic striker who really deserved to be playing at a higher level, was now being expertly marshalled by Hopkins and O'Reilly and Palace went into the break 1-0 up, losing 3-2 on aggregate.

Palace seemed to grow more and more in confidence as the second half went on. McGoldrick received the ball and went on a diagonal run towards the area. As was so often the case with Eddie, the closer he got to the goal the more likely he was to fluff it and just as it looked like that was about to happen again, David Mail, the scary looking Blackburn centre half who resembled a woolly mammoth, literally ran into him. Eddie repeated the form that had won us one or two penalties earlier in the season and went to ground as if he'd just been hit by an express train. Penalty! Earlier in the season Palace had been awarded four penalties against Brighton and only managed to score one (local legend has it that John Pemberton's penalty from that game recently started orbiting Neptune) and thus Madden had landed the job and our 'penalty king' and had a 100% record, which continued here as he cooly stepped up to slot the ball to the right of former Palace loanee Terry Gennoe and send the fans into raptures. It was now 3-3 and Palace had that precious away goal. Extra time looked a formality until late on in the half that man Garner struck a perfect right footed volley that looked like it was about to break Palace's hearts but for Suckling to make a fantastic block and push it over the woodwork; in doing so made one of the most memorable and most important saves in the club's history.

The half finished with both teams equal on aggregate but with Palace holding on to that precious away goal. Once again, it's difficult to underestimate the belief among the 30,000 strong crowd but somehow everyone knew we had it in the bag. All we had to do was hold on for another half hour. So extra time passed with little incident. Hopkins and O'Reilly continued to do a sterling job of rendering Blackburn's strike force impotent and the fans simply kept looking at their watches willing the minutes to pass. The next bit I didn't actually witness but from the TV replays McGoldrick received the ball on the right and played an inch perfect cross for Wright to glance into the net making it 3-0. Back then it was tradition that, regardless of how the season had ended, the fans would invade the pitch after the last match of the season, and this one was going to be no different. So those of us in the Sainsbury's End were allowed to stand behind the advertising hoardings for the last few minutes of the match (this was back in the days when we had stewards who were often also supporters of the club rather than ones who look upon Palace fans as being hooligans). The sheer number of people obscured my view of this incident so, when people started running on the pitch and cheering, I assumed the final whistle had gone and joined them. As these were more sensible times the Police and stewards calmly cleared the fans from the pitch and allowed referee George Courtenay (who'd play his part in another classic Palace match less than 12 months later) to continue play for the last few minutes and nobody was fined, arrested or had points deducted.

Then the final whistle did go and the roar was so loud I'm surprised the roof to the Main Stand didn't come off. Thousands of Palace fans ran onto the pitch to congratulate their heroes and a party mood ensued, McGoldrick being carried off the pitch on the shoulders of one fan whilst several of the others stayed on the pitch to celebrate a fantastic achievement. At last, after the heartbreak of the Venables and Mullery eras and everything in between, these fans were able to sing "We're Proud Of You" again. And proud we were. Palace were back in the big time and it felt amazing.

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