Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15423228)

Thanks colonel. I have to confess I'm still struggling to recall it but it certainly ticks all the boxes of that era - Soul II Soul style drum loop, pounding house piano, anthemic chorus etc.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15425534)

Interesting, I don't recall Steve Bull ever being considered as first choice alongside Lineker!

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15362466)

I thought it might be a bit of fun for old farts like to me to take an extended walk down memory lane and reminisce about the seminal 1990/91 season game by game. Alternatively this could die on its arse if no-one is interested but let’s see. The theory is that I will post up a brief summary of each game a day or two before the 30th anniversary date (hard to believe it’s all 30 years ago), and see what reminiscences people have.

Brief context – this was easily the most successful season in the club’s history with a comfortable third place finish and we were in with a realistic shout of winning the bloody thing until a tonking at the hands of eventual champions Arsenal in late February (spoiler alert). We also won the ZDS Trophy, admittedly something of a Mickey Mouse competition but still fantastic to see us winning at Wembley a year after the FA Cup final heartbreak. 1990/91 was certainly the ‘Zenith’ for this team which Steve Coppell had assembled, a collection of cast-offs and lower league bargains alongide a few astute bigger money signings to strengthen in key areas. From memory, we had brought in three players over the summer. John Humphrey came in at right back to replace the popular John Pemberton, who was shunted off to Sheffield United. Eric Young (or ‘Eric Old’ as some Palace fans labelled the 30 year old) arrived to partner his old Wimbledon mate Andy Thorn in the heart of the defence. And another Wimbledon old boy Glyn Hodges was signed to add some creative flair (or so we thought).

From a personal perspective I had turned 18 in the few days between the FA Cup final first game and replay, and after having spent the early part of the summer immersing myself in Italia 90 and the Madchester vibe, I started my first proper job at the beginning of August in the AMP building adjacent to East Croydon station. So the world was my oyster with proper money in my pocket for the first time.

On we go to the first game then, which was on 25 August 1990 away to Luton Town. Again hard to believe now, but Luton were considered a reasonably established top flight outfit then, having gained promotion under David Pleat in the early 80s and stayed put. They’d even won the League Cup in 1988. The game was played in front of a pathetic crowd of 9,583, caused by the ban on away fans which Luton’s extremist right-winger chairman David Evans had imposed. A number of Palace fans did thought infiltrate the stadium, as could be seen when the goals were shown on TV.

The match ended in a 1-1 draw, our goal coming from debutant Eric Young (from memory, a towering header from a corner??). This was deemed a satisfactory result in our opening game as we looked to build on our 15th place finish (out of 22) in the previous season.

Over to you – what memories of this game, and what were your thoughts and feelings as the new season got underway?

Originally Posted by N Herts Eagle (Post 15425568)

Ian Wright played I think in the February game against Cameroon.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15431209)

Shilton was the wrong side of 40 by now and had come in for a fair bit of stick following the World Cup semi final against Germany. Primarily for his inability to take a few steps back and deal with the looping deflection off Paul Parker for the Germans' goal, but many also noted that he dived the right way for every penalty in the shoot out without getting close to saving any one of them. Seemed a bit harsh - they were all very good pens - but I suppose there was an underlying point there about how the old reflexes and reactions start to wane as you move into middle age. I don't think there was much to blame him for in respect of the Wright and Bright goals in this game, although maybe he could have come out more quickly for the opener.

In any event, Shilton has recently emerged as something of a crackpot on Twitter with a never ending grudge against Maradona so **** him.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15422407)

Fascinating Rhythm by Bassomatic - this one is not even ringing any vague bells with me. Around this time the charts were being infested by one-off dance singles from DJs under the guise of a phony group name, so maybe it was one of those.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15431209)

although maybe he could have come out more quickly for the opener.

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper (Post 15431338)

Loving this thread for the music as much as the football.

plus one by a Dutch DJ/duo called '24/7' although I can't remember the song title. The girl in that act was hot though :love:

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper (Post 15431361)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtYpqe2B2xo

If you wanted to know what 1990 sounded like this is it. Even the rapper calling himself Captain Hollywood just screams this era

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15362581)

Thanks Bubbs, that actually sounds similar to the situation my father found himself in last month when he'd wandered into town for a haircut and realised he wasn't going to make it. Luckily a couple of passers by came to his aid and managed to help him home, where he deteriorated and was declared dead about an hour later after immense work from the paramedics to revive him. But I will always be grateful to that couple for taking the time to get him home to be with his wife in his final moments rather than passing away in the street.

Back on topic and I think your scrapbook entries will add some real colour to this thread. Interesting on Salako as my recollection is pretty much the same as yours. He was definitely getting frustrated at the lack of regular game time in the early part of the 89/90 season and he ended up on loan at Swansea where our former assistant Ian Evans was manager. The reports at the time were that this was with a view to a potential permanent transfer. However Ian Wright's leg break in January opened the door for him. I recall that he started up front against Southampton, scored a couple and never really looked back. He certainly played an integral part in both the FA Cup semi and final, playing a more defensive role with great tactical discipline. So it seemed all set up for him to progress in the new season, although I guess the signing of Hodges as a left sided midfielder was a threat to him, albeit that Hodges was a different sort of player and certainly not an out and out winger like Salako.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15432769)

I suppose the Derby game illustrated just how Coppell had struck gold with the Wright and Bright partnership. Garry Thompson had done a first rate job as stand-in, firstly for Wright's broken leg at the back end of the previous season and then as Bright regained fitness at the start of this. But in the first league game in which the two of them start, they score a goal each in a 2-0 win.

It really was a magical partnership and probably hard for younger fans to understand why and how it was such a big deal. These days we think we've struck gold if we can find one striker who can give us 15+ goals in a season. But if you look at the stats four the four seasons from 87/88 to 90/91, Wright and Bright delivered 178 goals, pretty evenly spread between the two. In other words say 45 per season or roughly one a game on average including cup games - probably a bit better than that once you take out games missed due to injury. Imagine a world where you turn up to every game with absolute confidence that at least one of your two strikers is likely to score. Poor old Christian Benteke will be turning in his grave at the very thought.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15432769)

I suppose the Derby game illustrated just how Coppell had struck gold with the Wright and Bright partnership. Garry Thompson had done a first rate job as stand-in, firstly for Wright's broken leg at the back end of the previous season and then as Bright regained fitness at the start of this. But in the first league game in which the two of them start, they score a goal each in a 2-0 win.

It really was a magical partnership and probably hard for younger fans to understand why and how it was such a big deal. These days we think we've struck gold if we can find one striker who can give us 15+ goals in a season. But if you look at the stats four the four seasons from 87/88 to 90/91, Wright and Bright delivered 178 goals, pretty evenly spread between the two. In other words say 45 per season or roughly one a game on average including cup games - probably a bit better than that once you take out games missed due to injury. Imagine a world where you turn up to every game with absolute confidence that at least one of your two strikers is likely to score. Poor old Christian Benteke will be turning in his grave at the very thought.

Originally Posted by Mad Max (Post 15431839)

I remember the upper tier was wooden and we used this to great effect to make a hell of a din.

Originally Posted by bubbs11 (Post 15442749)

If you look at the picture of Pardew tackling Batty above, isn’t that the Cup Final dance expression Pards is wearing?

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper (Post 15441812)

Decent enough game but also one of many that if we'd turned a home draw into a win, might have fuelled a real title challenge from us rather than 'outside chance' at the title.

Weird to see Luton so high after they'd only escaped relegation with the most outlandish of comebacks in the last two games of the 1990 season (last minute winner v Palace; followed by comeback 3-2 win at Derby after being 2-0 down)

Weird thing I remember from behind the goal in the Whitehorse is the ball bouncing towards an open goal with Gary Speed (also facing the goal) able to clear it. I blamed myself for not screaming "SHOOT!" as he might have instinctively reacted to the shout and smashed it into the goal for a Palace winner. Ahhh the innocence of youth when all you want to do is whatever it takes to help the team.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15442946)

The Anniversary Waltz Part One by Status Quo - AKA 'On and off and on again' I think this is the one the Wankers nicked for their cup final song 'Come On You Reds' a few years later. Dominated by a highly annoying keyboard riff earworm.

Originally Posted by N Herts Eagle (Post 15443000)

Also at this time Stevenage were another side that i kept an eye on the chairmans wife was one of the team i was in charge of at work. Fridays would see her go shopping for the burgers to cook to spectators. They were already begining the climb through non league ladder.
.

Originally Posted by bubbs11 (Post 15441419)

Palace 1. Thomas
Leeds 1. Speed

Att: 22,445

Palace: Martyn. Humphrey. Shaw. Pardew. Young. Thorn. McGoldrick. Thomas. Bright. Wright. Barber. Subs: Gray (Pardew)

Originally Posted by art malice (Post 15440403)

I remember it tight too. Leeds fans very noisy. You’d never have guessed they’d win the title the following season.

Originally Posted by PemboExpress (Post 15444725)

Yes they were bloody noisy. Think only Portsmouth and Millwall probably generated more noise. They were obviously getting stronger as evidenced by them winning the league the following season. Now, if only we had signed Rodney Wallace....

Originally Posted by ElwissAtMemphis (Post 15444694)

The crowds are pretty shit exemplified by the Leeds match all things considered.

Nowadays (pre-Covid) we can pretty well fill the ground but after taking 4-5K Leeds fans into account, that's a pretty shoddy effort. I appreciate people came out of the woodwork for the 'Big' 4 or 5 but for an average match that season, often with Palace in the top 4 and within a win or two of 1st place, a crowd of 14-16K was about par for the course which was piss poor frankly. Particularly if, like me, you'd been brought up with older Palace fans repeatedly going on about our huge "potential" and how we'd become a massive power if we had a decent run in the top flight.

Sorry to be negative but I recall it really disappointing me at the time. Particularly after mouthing off to my northern friends at university about what a sleeping giant we were. It was undoubtedly our best ever season performance wise but the attendances killed the myth of the South-London sleeping giant stone dead.

Originally Posted by PemboExpress (Post 15444931)

There was a constant rumour during these pre all-seater stadia that every club under-declared their attendances in order not to pay as much tax.

I don't know how much that was true in Palace's case but there were times I come away from the ground not believing the declared attendance when compared against other games and attendances.

In saying that, we should have been attracting bigger crowds than we were given the success we were having.

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper (Post 15444419)

Funny you should mention this, which I never knew until now.

What I do know from this season is that Spurs' Cup Final (It's Lucky for Spurs) song in conjunction with Chas & Dave, was also a blatant steal of a Chas & Dave song melody that had bombed back in '83. 'London Girl' peaked at Number 63. Never knew that song even existed until I saw it as the musical act on a comedy show on UK Gold years after the event.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15444904)

I've been referring to Wikipedia for the attendance data and it seems they have a different figure to Bubbs' contemporary match reports for every game - the Leeds game is reported as slightly lower at 21,676. I wonder where those figures are coming from.

Another interesting thing to note is that (according to Wiki) our biggest home gate of the season was Vs Southampton in March when nearly 29,000 turned up. I'm assuming that this was triggered by some sort of ZDS Trophy final tickets offer, but I can't actually recall this.

Originally Posted by bubbs11 (Post 15445022)

Well Wiki definitely cannot be trusted.

My attendance figures come from match reports from the time and verified by the gate recorded in our official programmes from that season. I’ve even triple checked in Ian King’s brilliant Complete Record book.

The Southampton gate was 14,439 :D

Originally Posted by bubbs11 (Post 15445022)

Well Wiki definitely cannot be trusted.

My attendance figures come from match reports from the time and verified by the gate recorded in our official programmes from that season. I’ve even triple checked in Ian King’s brilliant Complete Record book.

The Southampton gate was 14,439 :D

Originally Posted by ElwissAtMemphis (Post 15444694)

The crowds are pretty shit exemplified by the Leeds match all things considered.

Nowadays (pre-Covid) we can pretty well fill the ground but after taking 4-5K Leeds fans into account, that's a pretty shoddy effort. I appreciate people came out of the woodwork for the 'Big' 4 or 5 but for an average match that season, often with Palace in the top 4 and within a win or two of 1st place, a crowd of 14-16K was about par for the course which was piss poor frankly. Particularly if, like me, you'd been brought up with older Palace fans repeatedly going on about our huge "potential" and how we'd become a massive power if we had a decent run in the top flight.

Sorry to be negative but I recall it really disappointing me at the time. Particularly after mouthing off to my northern friends at university about what a sleeping giant we were. It was undoubtedly our best ever season performance
wise but the attendances killed the myth of the South-London sleeping giant stone dead.

Originally Posted by El Aguila (Post 15445488)

I never had a season ticket, you could always pay on the day. I miss that.

Originally Posted by art malice (Post 15445746)

I never had a season ticket in those days as I always stood on the Holmesdale and there was no option to reserve a crush barrier

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15447857)

It's amazing when you see some of the footage of 1980s goals on Twitter and whatnot, just how sparsely populated the terraces were. The other day I noticed a goal scored by Romeo Zondervan in an away fixture for Ipswich, back in the days when they were consistently one of the top teams in the league. There must have been all of 150 away fans jumping around in celebration. In addition some England games at Wembley in the mid to late 1980s attracted pitifully low attendances.

Anyway back on topic, and on 9 October 1990 we travelled to Roots Hall for the second leg of our league cup tie. Of course our 8-0 rout in the first leg made this game academic and I didn't bother with it. Eric Young and John Salako scored the goals in a 2-1 win, for a crushing 10-1 aggregate result. Quite pleasing in hindsight that our goals were scored by two black players having read David Webb's comments after the first leg earlier on in this thread.

Salako had featured very little in the league up until this stage but as the season wore on he would become an integral part of the first choice 11. It will be interesting to see the full line up for this game, even with the tie completely dead after the first leg I'm still sure we would have fielded a very strong team. That's just the way it worked back in those days.

After this there were no more matches for Palace until 20 October, presumably due to an international break.

Originally Posted by Ardent Eagle Forever (Post 15447854)

Seem to remember Chelsea gates early to mid eighties were poor also.

Remember going to the bridge for a palace Chelsea game with kevin mabbutt in the team. Seem to remember that the gate was only 5-6k.

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper (Post 15448122)

A bit of Palace trivia for you - Southend away also marked the debut of some youth player by the name of Gareth Southgate.

Originally Posted by stange555 (Post 15448147)

It was either that game, or Leyton Orient (away in the LC) that Glyn Hodges was spelt Glyn Honges in the programme, for me, that was his name after that.

Originally Posted by Bipe (Post 15447857)

It's amazing when you see some of the footage of 1980s goals on Twitter and whatnot, just how sparsely populated the terraces were. The other day I noticed a goal scored by Romeo Zondervan in an away fixture for Ipswich, back in the days when they were consistently one of the top teams in the league. There must have been all of 150 away fans jumping around in celebration. In addition some England games at Wembley in the mid to late 1980s attracted pitifully low attendances.

Anyway back on topic, and on 9 October 1990 we travelled to Roots Hall for the second leg of our league cup tie. Of course our 8-0 rout in the first leg made this game academic and I didn't bother with it. Eric Young and John Salako scored the goals in a 2-1 win, for a crushing 10-1 aggregate result. Quite pleasing in hindsight that our goals were scored by two black players having read David Webb's comments after the first leg earlier on in this thread.



Salako had featured very little in the league up until this stage but as the season wore on he would become an integral part of the first choice 11. It will be interesting to see the full line up for this game, even with the tie completely dead after the first leg I'm still sure we would have fielded a very strong team. That's just the way it worked back in those days.



After this there were no more matches for Palace until 20 October, presumably due to an international break.

Originally Posted by Ardent Eagle Forever (Post 15447854)

Seem to remember Chelsea gates early to mid eighties were poor also.

Remember going to the bridge for a palace Chelsea game with kevin mabbutt in the team. Seem to remember that the gate was only 5-6k.

Originally Posted by Andrew Aitchison (Post 15448236)

Don't think the gates at Chelsea ever got quite that bad, but I do remember going there for an evening game that we won with a crowd of about 12k.

Originally Posted by bubbs11 (Post 15448567)

SOUTHEND 1. Angell
PALACE 2 Young. Salako

Palace: Martyn. Humphrey. Shaw. Gray. Young. Thorn. Salako. Thomas. Bright. Wright. Hodges. Subs: Southgate (for Young). Pardew (for Thomas)

Originally Posted by ElwissAtMemphis (Post 15446542)

While on the subject of attendances, here's our average league attendances starting from our first promotion to Division 2 for the 1964/65 season.

I wish I could format it better but it'll have to do...

Note the average attendance of 29,794 in 1980 that dropped to 6,446 just 5 years later. I'd be surprised if any other club has had such a catastrophic haemorrhaging of support in so short a time.

For the season that we're remembering, the average attendance only increased by about 2,500 from a season where it felt like relegation was a genuine possibility up until Easter to a campaign when (absurd though it may sound) we had an outside chance of winning the bloody thing at some points. And yes I know we all knew that it was never going to happen but to a totally impartial observer from another country who had no idea about the competing clubs' recent histories, there were a couple of points when just 3 or 4 wins on the trot would have put us right in contention to actually finish within touching distance of the title. However, apart from the inevitable visits of Spurs and Man Utd, we never managed to get more than 20 sodding thousand through the gates in the 2nd half of that season yet we only finshed 7 points behind 2nd place.

Originally Posted by November85 (Post 15448915)

Only just discovered this thread. Love it. I was 13 this season, so didn't fully appreciate how special it was.

Originally Posted by Mad Max (Post 15445738)

I was 41 years a shift worker and only had one in four Saturday`s off so could never be a season ticket holder and always felt a lesser fan because of it.I always was a member of lifeline etc to try and make up for it.

Originally Posted by El Aguila (Post 15449156)

I never had the lump sum required to get a season ticket. I was working in a warehouse and earning a pretty miserable sum. I think I ended up going to all the home games, that season, all the same, and two or three away games.

Originally Posted by art malice (Post 15450957)

Was this the season we always kicked into the Main Stand from the kick-off? Had to be for a bet surely?

Originally Posted by art malice (Post 15450957)

Was this the season we always kicked into the Main Stand from the kick-off? Had to be for a bet surely?

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper (Post 15451004)

I know what you mean but I don't think that bet you are referring to became 'a thing' until the sports spread betting markets got bigger later in the 90s. Pretty sure I read Le Tissier was part of it for Southampton and saw it as a victimless crime.

I genuinely think it was a tactic to try and get something going down the wing straight fro the kick off.

Originally Posted by bubbs11 (Post 15451909)

And so we reach the international break with Martyn and Wright joining the England squad for their first qualifying match for the 1992 European Championships. Neither Palace boys featured in the game, which England won 2-0 with Lineker and Beardsley supplying the goals.

Nevertheless, TWO Palace players in the full England squad was a first. Three more would soon follow.



https://s8.gifyu.com/images/71BA6A14...EE3BD9B.md.jpg

Originally Posted by bubbs11 (Post 15451863)

Sure I recall Coppell being asked about this, and think he said something along the lines of it just being a simple way of pressing the opposition back deep in their half and you’re instantly facing forward towards their goal. If your winger does get the ball when we did it, happy days - you’re right on the attack, but if not, no harm done.

He didn’t place much importance to it. Just said you had to do something from kick off and thought this was better than passing it about in your own half or even back to the keeper to boot out when you’ll be facing the wrong way.

I do recall when playing Arsenal at home once, Tony Adams started in the full back position and prevented the ball from getting to our winger or going out and headed the ball forward. Don’t remember any other clubs making any provisions.

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper (Post 15460640)

Robert Warzycha?