CRYSTAL PALACE F.C.

Palace's final home game of the season brought Stoke City to SE25 and the Eagles were able to give their fans something to cheer ahead of the cup final as they came from behind to win 2-1 with Dwight Gayle scoring both goals, and afterwards Alan Pardew looked back on his striker's season and assessed: "Gayle is a player that, through injuries and our success in the first half of the season, just hasn't had enough game time this season. We had a problem in the last window with him. He was 'shall I go, shall I stay?' but we wanted him to stay. We got there in the end and he's been waiting for a chance."

With Euro 2016 just around the corner there was good news for four Eagles as Yohan Cabaye was named in France's final squad for the tournament, and Jonny Williams, Wayne Hennessey and Joe Ledley were selected for Wales' initial 29 man squad. 

The club's annual Awards Night saw Wilfried Zaha walk off with the Player of the Year award, while Scott Dann was named Players' Player of the Year. Jason Puncheon won Goal of the Season, while Hiram Boateng and Luke Dreher were also handed gongs.

Steve Coppell also picked up a Special Achievement Award for guiding Palace to their highest ever league placing of third 25 years ago, and next season's home and away kits were also unveiled.

The season ended in disappointing fashion with a 4-1 defeat at Southampton, although Julian Speroni drew level with John Jackson's record of 388 games as a Palace goalkeeper, but now all attentions could be turned to Wembley and the FA Cup final.

After plenty of build-up, the Eagles returned to the national stadium to take on Manchester United and took the lead with just 12 minutes to play through Jason Puncheon.

However they were pegged back minutes later by Juan Mata's goal, and then Jesse Lingard struck in extra-time to deny Palace their first ever piece of silverware. Post-match, Pardew said: “The players have given me everything today. They played with heart and passion. It was a great cup final, Manchester United did the same. It was even and made for an enthralling tie, a game that could have gone either way. Unfortunately for us it didn’t go our way.”