The Easter Monday meeting was a chaotic, fiery and often dumbfounding affair. Each side scored from 12-yards, which sounds less dramatic than the reality, because although they only found the back of the net once, Palace were awarded four spot-kicks inside half-an-hour.
The game itself was an important one, with Palace looking to secure promotion back to the top-flight after seven years in the second tier, while the visitors were hoping to avoid an instant relegation to Division Three.
Palace could have been ahead inside 10 seconds when Mark Bright lobbed narrowly over the crossbar, and the tone had been set for a breathless and frenetic encounter.
The opening goal came from open play, with Ian Wright volleying home from the angle – the goal was the 100th scored by the Wright and Bright strike partnership for the club, and Palace had the edge.
Then, on the 38th minute, Bright was fouled inside the area for the game’s first penalty, picking himself up to smash home and seemingly move the game out of struggling Brighton’s reach.
Instead, however, the action was just beginning. Brighton were already down to 10 men, with Mike Trusson sent off; now, Eddie McGoldrick was felled for Palace’s second penalty of the match. This time, Bright saw his effort pushed behind for a corner.
From the set-piece, Bright was fouled and the Eagles had their third penalty inside five minutes. Referee Kelvin Morton was quickly becoming public enemy number one for the incensed Brighton defenders, but he waved away their protests.
This time Wright took responsibility, and hit the woodwork. Somehow at the break it remained 2-0.
After half-time, Morton was in the thick of things once again, awarding Brighton a penalty despite few appeals, and Alan Curbishley smashed home to reduce the deficit.
Just as Brighton seemed to be back into it, Palace were awarded their fourth – and the game’s fifth – penalty of the afternoon, which John Pemberton took. The result? Another miss.
Palace’s profligacy from the spot almost came back to haunt them, as Perry Suckling made a series of important saves to preserve the three points, but the drama of that afternoon had done nothing to thaw the already cool relations between the two clubs.