Selhurst Park isn’t just a Premier League football ground, but the heart of a vibrant and diverse community, stretching back a century since Palace’s arrival in 1924. Find out more about the incredible history of Selhurst Park.

100 Years of Selhurst Park

## South London and Proud

> Born in Greenwich, south London, Eberechi Eze joined Palace in summer 2020 as a landmark signing and has since established himself as a leading attacking talent in the Premier League.

Eberechi Eze signed a five-year contract with Crystal Palace F.C. in August 2020, becoming the club’s second arrival of the summer transfer window.

The south London-born playmaker rose through the ranks at Queens Park Rangers after joining them in 2016. An FA Cup debut followed in January 2017 and later that year, Eze made 22 appearances in a half-season loan to Wycombe Wanderers.

Then still a teenager, the attack-minded youngster played a key role in the Chairboys’ promotion to League One that season, scoring five goals - including a brace against Cambridge United.

On his return to QPR, Eze established himself as a regular first-team player, being awarded the No.10 shirt and a three-year contract in 2018. He left the Hoops with 20 goals from 112 senior games, collecting Supporters’ Player of the Season, Players’ Player of the Season and Junior Hoops Player of the Season for 19/20 as well as being shortlisted for PFA Player of the Year.

Internationally, Eze has represented England at both Under-20 and Under-21 level, and was named in the U21 squad the same week he signed for Palace.

He made his Palace debut as an 81st-minute substitute against Southampton in September 2020, and scored his first goal for the Eagles shortly after, netting a Goal of the Month free-kick versus Leeds United.

Another sensational strike – this time against Sheffield United – earned Eze the club's Goal of the Season award for 2020/21. He finished the 20/21 campaign with six goals and four assists in 35 games.

The midfielder received a call from the England first-team, after his performances in 20/21, but was desperately unfortunate to suffer an Achillies injury two matches before the end of the season, keeping him sidelined for over six months.

Injury meant that the majority of 2021/22 was spent in recovery for Eze, but he returned in the latter part of campaign and scored his only goal of 21/22 in a 2-1 win away at Southampton – a well-taken finish.

The following season was Eze's finest in a Palace shirt to date, the playmaker establishing himself as a leading offensive talent in the Premier League.

The No. 10 featured in all 38 of the Eagles' Premier League games in 2022/23, coming into his own after the World Cup break, finishing the season with 10 goals – Palace's top scorer – and four assists to his name. He was at his mesmeric best during April 2023, scoring four times in Palace’s six games and earning a Premier League Player of the Month nomination.

In June, Eze became the 18th Crystal Palace player to represent England, coming on after 70 minutes of a 4-0 win over Malta – and even having an effort cleared off the line.

He made his 100th Premier League appearance for the club against Fulham in September 2023 and signed a new three-and-a-half year deal in November, extending his stay in SE25 until 2027.

His 2023/24 season was intermittently broken up due to injury, however he still managed to produce his best ever season in terms of attacking returns with 11 goals and four assists in 27 Premier League games. Eze also won the Goal of the Season award, as voted for by the fans, with his winner at Anfield in April 2024.

Eze's fine form towards the end of 23/24 saw him called up to the England squad ahead of the 2024 UEFA European Championship. He was also rewarded with his first start for the Three Lions in a 3-0 friendly win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in early June.

He made an impact off the bench on three occasions for England, helping the side to the final they finished runners-up in the 2024 UEFA European Championship.

QPR 2019/20

Supporters' Player of the Season

2019/20 Championship 

PFA Team of the Season 

Players’ Player of the Season

Junior Hoops Player of the Season

November 2020, January 2021, October 2022, April 2023, March 2024

Crystal Palace Player of the Month

October 2022, April 2023, October 2023, December 2023

Crystal Palace Goal of the Month

Crystal Palace, 2020/21 (v Sheffield United) | Crystal Palace, 2023/24 (v Liverpool)

Goal of the Season

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Goal of the Month contenders: October 2024

The Full 90: Aston Villa v Crystal Palace | EFL Cup | Palace TV+

JP & Ebs | Friendship Test

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Match Action: Aston Villa 1-2 Crystal Palace | EFL Cup

All Angles | JP's Fine First-Half Strike

CCTV | Preparing for Spurs 

Eze Wins September's Goal of the Month

Goal of the Month contenders: September 2024

The Full 90: Queens Park Rangers v Crystal Palace | Palace TV+

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Match Action: QPR 1-2 Crystal Palace

Eze talks cup win at QPR

Access All Over: Chelsea (A)

The Full 90 | Chelsea v Crystal Palace | Palace TV+

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Season

Games

For it was on 12th December 1964, at the Rams’ Baseball Ground, that Keith Smith – signed from Peterborough United the month before – needed just six seconds to give the Glaziers the lead.

Just months after winning promotion from the Third Division under manager Dick Graham – who had succeeded Arthur Rowe in 1962 – Palace had recovered from a poor start, losing their first three games, to win their next six on the bounce in all competitions.

Form ebbed and flowed from then on, with the Glaziers only once chaining together two victories between 30th September and 2nd January – but they also never lost consecutive games during that period.

Nevertheless, Smith’s history-making moment arrived after a run of three games without a win for Graham’s side – a 1-0 defeat at Preston North End the precursor to Palace’s quickest-ever start to a match.

The goal began with Peter Burridge’s kick-off, when centre-forward and top scorer Cliff Holton laid the ball off for fellow forward Brian Whitehouse to launch the ball long. In steamed Smith – and, after just six seconds, the Palace man had slotted past Derby goalkeeper Reg Matthews.

Derby would come back into the game, however, with Palace indebted to Burridge for a later brace to salvage a point; the Glaziers would finish the 64/65 season in seventh after securing a number of valuable draws.

As of the time of writing, records indicate that Smith’s goal is the joint-second fastest in English football history: only Jim Fryatt, for Bradford Park Avenue against Tranmere in the same year, has purportedly – the limits of technology have made such claims difficult to verify – scored a quicker goal (four seconds).

As for the modern day, only Shane Long’s goal for Southampton against Watford in 2018/19 (7.69 seconds) even comes close.

And, if only to solidify his place in Palace history, the year after his record-breaking strike, Smith also captured the honour of becoming the club’s first-ever substitute.

With a 12th player introduced to matchday squads  at the start of 1965/66, Smith’s introduction for Ian Lawson on 28th August, 1965 was Palace’s first-ever substitution. 


While it wasn’t quite a case of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’, there’ll have been more Crystal Palace supporters than usual who won’t have caught their goal against Derby County on this day 60 years ago.

On This Day: Palace’s fastest ever goal (1964)

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The Cumbria-born goalkeeper played a key role in securing a point, making some vital interventions, including a wonderful reaction save to deny Erling Haaland during the first-half.

It was the sign of a shot-stopper at the top of his game, Henderson having continued to grow in confidence at Selhurst Park since his deadline day arrival in August 2023.

And the numbers back up his development. The keeper has now kept seven Premier League clean sheets at Palace, since his maiden shut-out in our 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield in April.

Across his century of top-flight games, Henderson has kept 30 clean sheets in total with close to half (13) coming during his loan spell at Sheffield United.

He has also saved four penalties, always a handy trait for keepers, most recently producing a stunning dive to deny Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans from the spot during a dramatic 2-2 draw at Villa Park.

Access All Over: Aston Villa (A)

Having made 46 saves already this season, Henderson is closing in on topping his total from last year of 58.

The England international [recently spoke about how his run of form](https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/features/dean-henderson-feature-togetherness-england-consistency-crystal-palace/) between the sticks has lifted his own levels of belief and self-confidence.

“I’ve had a bit of a weight lifted off my shoulders – I feel good now,” Henderson revealed. “I feel back to my old self, and it’s just such a nice feeling.

“I’m so excited to kick on and show the Palace fans what I’m really about. They’re warming to me week in, week out. Hopefully, I can win them all over.”

Congratulations, Dean!

Dean Henderson made it to a landmark century of Premier League appearances after starting our 2-2 draw with Manchester City last weekend. 

Henderson reaches 100 Premier League appearances 

Crystal Palace v Manchester City (2024-12-07)

I became a Crystal Palace tragic on 23rd November, 2014. It’s an easy date to remember, trust me.

I was living in Western Sydney in Australia at the time and our Socceroos (our beloved national football team) had just participated in the 2014 FIFA World Cup – the lowest FIFA-ranked country in attendance.

We didn’t win a game in our ‘Group of Death’ (Spain, Chile & Netherlands!), but that didn’t matter. We were in the World Cup – and it was awesome.

I remember watching Mile Jedinak taking a brilliant penalty against the Netherlands and hearing the commentator talking about how he captained a Premier League team, Crystal Palace. 

I went straight to Google, read about the Eagles’ amazing history, and waited patiently until the moment I could finally watch a game.

That moment came about on 23rd November, 2014, when Palace hosted Liverpool at Selhurst Park. What do you think the chances would have been that Mile Jedinak would score one of the greatest free-kicks in the history of the Premier League on that very night? Pretty good, as it turned out!

From that moment on, the mighty Crystal Palace was my team. 

I even travelled over 500 miles from Sydney to Melbourne to watch them take on Manchester United at the glorious Melbourne Cricket Ground in July 2022 – the same trip on which I proposed to my now wife, Morgan.

Fast forward to 2023, and my (soon-to-be) wife and I were not only planning our wedding, but also our honeymoon, of course.

We decided that London would be our first stop on our way through to Scotland and, as luck would have it, we found out we would be there at the same time Leicester City were visiting Selhurst Park on 1st April 2023.

I never thought I’d watch the Eagles at Selhurst, but Morgan decided that we should try and get there – we may never get another chance, after all! After becoming a Gold Member to make sure I could purchase tickets, at 10pm Sydney time, I managed to snag us some.

Morgan and I married on 25th March 2023, and three days later jumped on a plane to London to enjoy our honeymoon. April came around fast and Morgan and I – dressed in our Palace best – boarded a train at Liverpool Street Station and headed to SE25.

As the train started to fill with a sea of blue and red, it was hard to hide my excitement – even though we hadn’t won in 13 matches at that point! 

I didn’t care – we were almost there! We followed the crowd through the streets and then, like an oasis in the South London desert, there it was: Selhurst Park.

We found our seats, wide-eyed, and soaked in the atmosphere. The players ran onto the pitch and the singing started. It was absolutely incredible – there’s no sound like it in any football stadium in Australia.

The game kicked off – and Morgan and I were entranced.

This is where things get a little blurry for me, as the game was a whirlwind. I can’t confirm that I cursed him, but I hope wearing my Wilfried Zaha jersey had nothing to do with the groin injury which finished Wilf’s afternoon at half-time. I remember Morgan turning to me and saying: “We’re in trouble now, aren’t we?”

Leicester scored first, almost an hour in, and I thought that on potentially my only ever visit to Selhurst Park, I’d be seeing another loss.

Then, maybe three minutes later, Ebere Eze won a free-kick and took it – snagging us a goal back as it bounced off the woodwork, and then the ‘keeper, for a (technically) Daniel Iversen own goal. As if by magic, Morgan managed to snap a picture just as the ball crossed the line! We were back at 1-1 with 20 minutes to go.

Access All Over | Leicester (H)

Then, a moment I will never forget: Jean-Philippe Mateta’s winner in the 94th minute.

After getting subbed on less than 10 minutes earlier, Mateta controlled a brilliant ball from a rampaging Jordan Ayew and slotted it past Iversen, giving Palace our first win in 14 games.

Selhurst Park exploded with noise. We could feel the stand sway as the crowd jumped and chanted, Roy Hodgson was hailed in his first game back, and we got swept up in the moment. 

It was magic.

Here I was at Selhurst Park with my wife, on our honeymoon, watching Crystal Palace win in person – nearly a decade after I first fell in love with them from the other side of the world.

When we got back to our hotel in Central London, there was only one thing left to do: wear my brand new Selhurst jumper, and head out for a celebratory beer or five with my beautiful wife.

I hope someday I’ll be able to get back to Selhurst Park and watch the Eagles again, but will it ever be as special as the 1st April 2023, whilst on honeymoon?

It’ll be a hard act to follow, but we’re willing to take another 27-hour flight sometime soon to make sure!

**Got a Selhurst story to tell? Let us know by emailing [selhurst100@cpfc.co.uk](mailto:selhurst100@cpfc.co.uk), and you could see your submission in the official matchday programme!**

Selhurst Park isn’t just a Premier League football ground, but the heart of a vibrant and diverse community, whose stories stretch back a century. Here, we hear from Australian supporter Matt Perriman – recently celebrating a decade as an Eagle – about a trip to the stadium that he and his wife Morgan will never forget...

Mile, marriage & Mateta: Matt's decade as an Eagle

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10Eberechi
Eze

Club

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On This Day: Palace’s fastest ever goal (1964)

Henderson reaches 100 Premier League appearances

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Christmas Shopping

Latest Videos

Kaminski reacts to loss against WSL Cup group winners

Premier League International Cup Highlights: Crystal Palace U21s 3-1 RSC Anderlecht Futures

The Full 90: Crystal Palace U21s v RSC Anderlecht U21s | Palace TV+

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10EberechiEze

10Eberechi
Eze