One Year On: Palace ease into FA Cup Final with stunning show against Villa
Can you believe it's a whole year to the day (26th April) since Crystal Palace's stunning FA Cup semi-final win over Aston Villa? No, neither can we.
It was truly one of the great Red and Blue occasions – although we weren't to know, of course, how much it'd be eclipsed just a few short weeks later – as simply everything went the way of Crystal Palace.
From South London’s takeover of Covent Garden earlier in the day, to the pints flowing at the Green Man, and the convergence of all the fans at Wembley...
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And then there were the legends: John Salako was on the big screen while Scott Dann, Martin Kelly and James McArthur all mingled with supporters in the Fanzone prior to kick-off – the day already had the sense of being something special.
Then, there was moving pre-match supporter-led display - "Take my hand, take my whole life too" – and the wall of noise from Wembley's West End building up to kick-off on a gloriously sunny Saturday evening.
Depicted in that display was an image of then-seven-year-old Ethan.
Seven years prior, the young boy had been brought along by his South London-based grandmother – encouraged by his sadly now-late grandfather – to see Palace defeat league champions Manchester City. Ethan ended the day clutching with glee the shirt of Andros Townsend, whom he’d witnessed score an incredible goal to inspire an against-the-odds away victory.
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It was the kind of moment which so many of us will recall fondly amidst our own experiences of the sport: the start of a lifelong relationship between supporter and club, inspired by family and football to fall for the beautiful game.
Who knows – of the millions of people around the world watching events at Wembley unfold that day, as Eberechi Eze scored a wonder-goal to give Palace the lead, and Ismaïla Sarr added a clinical double in the second-half – how many experienced their own ‘Ethan moment’ watching Crystal Palace?
The 3-0 win booked our place in a third-ever FA Cup Final, set to take place on Saturday, 17th May, under the Wembley arch.
Surely... surely... this time, it was to be our time...