The 11th May was the 30th anniversary of our glorious promotion winning campaign from the old Division Two to the old Division One as Champions in season 1978/79.

As part of the celebrations this week we will be welcoming members of the squad back to our Player Of The Year night in the marquee on the pitch this Saturday.

That memorable season began on August 19th 1978 with an away fixture against Blackburn Rovers. Palace went into the match on the back of some important transfer business that saw Mike Elwiss come in from Preston North End for a record fee of £200,000.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw, Dave Swindlehurst netting Palace's strike in front of a crowd of 9,463. He got his second of the season in the next game at home to Luton Town just three days later.

A notable performance from Vince Hilaire saw him bag his first of the season along with Murphy to round off a 3-1 win at Selhurst Park.
It was an encouraging start to the season that got even better as, in the next nine games Palace were unbeaten with five wins and four draws. Their first defeat was not until the 28th October, when Fulham took three points from Selhurst Park in a 1-0 win.

In amongst that run of results was a profitable encounter with Aston Villa in the League Cup. A 1-1 draw meant a replay at Selhurst Park, which also ended in a draw - this time neither side managed to convert.

But Villa made no mistake in the second replay at Coventry as Scotland international, Andy Gray scored twice in a 3-0 win to send Palace out of the competition. The money raised through the replays though was used to great effect as it paved the way for the return of Steve Kember.

His first game back at Palace was in the 2-1 away defeat to Burnley on November 4th, one week after their first defeat of the season against Fulham. But it was to be the only time in the entire campaign that Palace would be defeated on consecutive occasions.

At the halfway stage of the season, just before Christmas, Palace were two points clear of Stoke at the top of the Second Division table.
But in a goalless draw against Cambridge Utd on the 23rd December Palace were dealt a cruel blow as Elwiss suffered a cartilage injury that ended his career and left a gaping hole in the side.

Over the next six league games Palace picked up just five points and scored on only two occasions - Hilaire against Leyton Orient and Ian Walsh against Stoke City.

It was not until March 3rd 1979 that the Eagles recorded their next win when they welcomed Wrexham to south east London as a solitary strike by Walsh proved decisive.

But when the season's hopes threatened to fall way, it was the defence that began to stand up and be noticed.

They formed a cohesive unit that frustrated strikers and became an almost impenetrable shield infront of goalkeeper John Burridge. It was an extraordinary turnaround and in the second half of the season they went on to concede just eight league goals compared to the 16 they conceded before Christmas.

The wobble in form at the beginning of 79 had been enough to knock Palace off the top spot, but that win against Wrexham proved a vital lift as Palace returned to winning ways with a total of eight wins from the next 14 games, including a 2-1 victory over other promotion hopefuls Sunderland, meant that promotion rested on the final game of the season.

All of the other challengers had finished their league programmes and the finale was so close that destiny lay in Palace's own hands.
A victory and Palace would celebrate promotion as Champions. A draw and Palace would be promoted at Sunderland's expense. A defeat would condemn them to another season of Division Two football.

The match was to be played against Burnley on the evening of Friday 11th May 1979 and attracted a crowd of staggering proportions. A total of 51,482 supporters crammed into Selhurst Park - a number that has never been experienced since.

On the night Burnley proved no easy opposition. Earlier in the season they had beaten Palace 2-1 and here they were resisting the Eagles' mounting pressure for 76 minutes. Alan Stevenson made a string of fine saves to keep his side in the game but could do nothing about Walsh's bullet header 14 minutes from time from an inch perfect Hilaire cross.

The goal sent the home crowd into raptures, and sparked a mass pitch invasion that disrupted the order of play. Order was duly restored and, with two minutes remaining Swindlehurst popped up with a right footed drive to clinch the title.

The goal sparked another invasion, this time a lot larger than the first with an approximate 20,000 strong throng of supporters celebrating on the turf.

Luckily the players had managed to retreat in time to the tunnel and made their way up to the directors' box seats where they acknowledged the cheering crowd as Champions.