Alan Rennie

I watched it on an iPad in a maternity ward....

15 years ago today, Crystal Palace FC were in a state of limbo. At the end of the 2009/10 season, our players, having not been paid for 3 months, had overturned a 10 point deduction due to falling into administration, securing the draw we needed on the last day of the season away at Sheffield Wednesday to keep our heads above water in the Championship. The club still faced an incredibly precarious future, with the stadium owned by Lloyds Bank who seemingly had little intention of selling it back. Due to fan protests, both outside Selhurst Park and at the headquarters of the bank itself in early June, they relented and gave Steve Parish and CPFC2010 the green light to purchase the stadium and keep the club alive. That summer, the lifelong fans who fronted the aforementioned consortium were forced to navigate their way through club ownership as total novices; contending with a squad which had just 9 first-team players registered to it and a club infrastructure in desperate need of TLC. Fast-forward 3 years and the club had, despite the odds being stacked heavily against it, made it to the Premier League via a Play-Off Final victory over Watford. Prior to that promotion, Crystal Palace had never spent more than a single season in the Premier League; we’re now at the end of our 12th in a row with a 13th to come in August. Today, we head into what is our 3rd ever FA Cup Final, we’ve lost the previous two in 1990 and 2016 and have never in our history won what is considered to be a “major” trophy. I’ve been doing so much thinking about today’s game over the last week or so, the passage of support from my Granddad to my old man, down to me and now to my son; with that story of family ties a consistent theme throughout the entire Palace fan-base, we don’t support this club for glory, it’s about pride in South London and what that badge means to us. We may win it, if we do, it’ll be a truly incredible feeling but whatever the outcome, I know that it won’t make the slightest bit of difference to how much I love our football club; it gives my life structure and meaning and looking back to those uncertain days in 2010, I know how close we came to losing it altogether. One last push ladies and gentlemen, you never know. ❤️💙