Last week it was reported that former Palace player Ernie Yard had passed away aged 63.

Ernie was born in Stranraer and after playing for a couple of Scottish League clubs, moved to Bury in 1963. In May 1965 Crystal Palace paid £9,000 for Ernie, having impressed in the two games between the clubs also scoring three goals against the Glaziers, and he made his Palace debut on the opening day of the 1965-6 season at Birmingham City.

Originally a striker Palace manager Dick Graham used him as a left-sided midfield player and he scored one of Palace's goals at Bury to earn a 2-2 draw. Ernie made 36 appearances that season, scoring three goals but he did not feature highly in new manager Bert Head's plans and in November 1966 he moved on to Reading for the next three seasons.

In total Ernie played 40 times for the Eagles scoring three times.