It is safe to assert that, as late as the 9th December 2003, Crystal Palace fans did not expect – following a first-ever home defeat to Crewe Alexandra – to be recalling the 03/04 season with any great fondness.
Having won their opening three First Division matches – including with a Dougie Freedman hat-trick at Burnley on the opening day of the season – hopes were high under new permanent manager Steve Kember.
But just two wins from their next 19 league matches – a run which included a 5-0 loss at newly-promoted Wigan, which cost Kember his job – left the Eagles just a handful of points above the drop zone.
Step forwards, on 21st December, 2003, Iain Dowie, whose rigorous training schemes paid almost immediate dividends.
Following a loss, a win and a draw at the start his gruelling tenure, Dowie’s Palace – powered by the goals of a free-scoring Andy Johnson and Freedman, who hit 32 in all competitions – would go on to win five consecutive matches, overcoming Watford 5-1 and Stoke City 6-3, and ultimately 17 of their remaining 23 clashes that season.
It was a sequence which saw Palace rise from the brink of the relegation zone to the edge of the play-off places.
On This Day (12th April) in 2004, just two days after a 2-0 win over Cardiff City away, Palace hosted West Ham United at Selhurst Park in what was to prove a dress rehearsal for the eventual play-off final.