As Ismaila Sarr raced through on goal in the 94th minute of Crystal Palace’s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa, 35,000 expectant Palace fans collectively held their breaths in the West end of Wembley Stadium. In truth, the finish past Emiliano Martinez was as convincing and assured as Palace’s performance.
Oliver Glasner’s side were confident, mature and ruthless and managed to make Champions League chasing Aston Villa look wholly ordinary. Perhaps this shouldn’t have come as a surprise considering Palace are now unbeaten in four matches against Unai Emery’s men this season.
Aside from the natural unbridled joy the comes as a result of reaching English football’s showpiece event, Saturday (April 26) felt different and Palace fans are still experiencing the rush. There was a sense among Eagles’ fans that this could be their year. After 120 years of trying (164 if you choose to believe the club’s narrative) Palace are on the brink of winning their first ever major trophy.
Palace are not a massive club, and they do not have the rich history of the other three sides that joined them in the semi-finals. Manchester City have, to an almost boring extent, won it all over the past 15 years, Aston Villa are in the middle of a remarkable return to the top of English football under Emery and Nottingham Forest have two European Cups in their trophy cabinet.
Palace captain Marc Guehi lofting the sport’s most recognisable trophy above his head on May 17, would mark a welcome change from the increasing predictability of English domestic football. Since Wigan Athletic’s triumph over City 12 years ago, Leicester City are the only team from outside the traditional ‘big 6’ to have claimed the title.
At the semi final, Palace fans showed just what it would mean to change that, and their experiences of the day provide a glimpse of what to expect in three weeks’ time.
Sun, family and Covent Garden
Trips to Wembley, especially when they do not come around often, are always family affairs. The days are spoken about for decades to come. Palace fans, too young to have experienced the 1990 final against Manchester United, were brought up on tales of “just how close we were” to victory.
The play-off victories in 1997 and 2013 will forever be etched in the memories of those that were there, as will the agonising Wembley defeats – 1996 and 2016 spring to mind. After the mad rush of organising tickets, trying to ensure you are all set together, the planning for the day can begin.
Groups have set routines; where to meet before the game, where to drink, when to head up the iconic Wembley Way. On April 26, the whole of London seemed to be red and blue. From underground escalators to city centre pubs. Palace fans were off to Wembley and everyone was going to know about it.
Thousands descended upon Covent Garden, as they had done before the semi-final defeat to Chelsea in 2022. This time, instead of just an excitement at being part of the occasion, there was a confidence that Palace were good enough to get past Villa and guarantee their fans an opportunity to do this all over again.
After a few hours of drinking and singing songs about their adored Austrian manager, many fans began to make the journey north towards Wembley Park. The walk up Wembley Way, from the station to the stadium, was emotional. Seeing so many Palace fans in one place at one time rarely happens and needed to be savoured.
Fans of bigger clubs, more used to this experience, may find this odd. Manchester City, for example, have been to the new Wembley stadium some 30 times and struggled to convince fans to make the journey for the seventh consecutive season. They had 5000 empty seats in their end of the ground on Sunday.
But for Palace fans, the magnitude of the day was clear. Such was the occasion that club chairman and boyhood fan, Steve Parish, decided to get on the Tube himself and join in.
“I thought today was a real celebration for the fans,” he told BBC Sport. “Two clubs who haven’t won a lot of honours in recent times, for us never. A great occasion at Wembley and we stand at the edge of doing something we’ve never done before.
“I got the Tube here with the fans, it was a fantastic experience. It takes two hours to get here in the car!”
Everything about the afternoon- to this point – had been perfect. The sun was shining, spirits were high without every spilling over or crossing a line as they had done at times against Chelsea two years previous.
A huge tifo display, depicting a young fan clutching an Andros Townsend shirt that he had been given after Palace’s 3-2 win over Manchester City in 2018, was unveiled as the players took to the pitch. Underneath it were the words “Take my hand, take my whole life too” – famous lyrics from Elvis Presley’s 1961 hit ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. It was a sight to behold.
The visible and audible difference between the Palace and Villa ends on the day, is perhaps a perfect example of how and why an FA Cup win would mean so much more to a club like Palace. A Wembley semi-final victory immediately sits up there with some of the club’s greatest ever days and the memories made by those that were lucky enough to be there, will be replayed daily before the final.
The squad rose to the occasion and harnessed the crowd’s energy to produce their best performance of the season in their most important game. It was outstanding. The players are keen to stress that they are not finished yet and are confident of going one better.
What it would mean is hard to describe on paper.
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