This wasn't the first time Palace were in a play-off final and just one step from the Premier League. Take a look at the previous play-off final victories the club have been involved in over the years below!
Please note, there are some major spoilers in the below. If you don't know Palace's story fully and haven't watched When Eagles Dare yet, find out how you can here!
27th May, 2013 v Watford
The final which features in episode five of When Eagles Dare. Palace came into this game after defying the odds to beat Brighton & Hove Albion on their own turf in the semi-finals and after a barren run of one win in 10 games as the season drew to a close.
Watford were the clear favourites overall, but a resilient display from the Eagles, including great goalkeeping from Julian Speroni, dragged the clash into extra-time.
As the London sun beat down, manager Ian Holloway explained that he saw a tactical weakness in the Watford defence in the shape of Marco Cassetti. Thankfully, he had just the man to exploit it.
“'Just keep taking him [Cassetti] on,'” Holloway told Wilfried Zaha. “‘He’ll get booked or he’ll get sent off.’
“They moved him four times to try and get him away from Wilf. They put him left-back, they put him right-back, they put him sweeper, and I just said: ‘Stay there.’ My lads knew. We just keep feeding Wilf and what happened?”
What happened was a foul on Zaha inside the box at the end of the first-half of extra-time, resulting in a penalty which Kevin Phillips duly dispatched against his former club.
The Phillips penalty was enough to see the Eagles through, though it wasn’t plain sailing as Joel Ward cleared a Fernando Foresitieri shot off the line in the dying moments of the second-half of extra-time.
The Eagles secured promotion to the Premier League on the back of this play-off final victory in 2013 and remain there today.
2004 - West Ham United
In a similar vein to 2013, Palace weren’t expected to make the final, let alone the play-offs. Then they appointed former player Iain Dowie as manager.
Palace ironically secured their play-off place thanks to West Ham, as the east Londoners secured a draw against Wigan Athletic on the final day of the season.
The Eagles faced Sunderland in the play-off semi-finals, and won the first-leg 3-2 at Selhurst Park. The second-leg came three days later at the Stadium of Light and the Black Cats levelled the scores on aggregate.
The game went to penalties and Palace skipper Michael Hughes scored the decisive winning effort to send the Eagles to the Millennium stadium.
The final was a cagey affair, though Neil Shipperly found the breakthrough just after the hour-mark after pouncing on an Andrew Johnson shot that Stephen Bywater spilled in the West Ham goal.
In typical Palace fashion, the team didn’t make it easy for themselves and West Ham pushed on to see goals from Bobby Zamora and David Connolly disallowed for offside.
Palace held on however to secure promotion to the Premier League, though their stay was short lived as they were relegated on the final day of the following season. A draw against Charlton wasn’t enough as West Bromwich Albion stayed up with a point more than Palace.
1997 - Sheffield United
Palace came into this play-off final seeking redemption, having lost out in the season before to Leicester City.
The team had been in good form throughout the 1996/97 season, with four players scoring 10 goals or more: Shipperley, Dougie Freedman, David Hopkin and Bruce Dyer. Legendary manager Steve Coppell was also in charge.
The match itself was rather uneventful and cagey and also looked destined for extra-time until a moment of magic from Hopkin in the 90th-minute. After a well worked corner, the ball was cleared out to the edge of the 18-yard box where Hopkin was, as Rob Hawthorne put it: “looking to curl one.”
The Scottish midfielder curled the ball right past the helpless Simon Tracey in the Sheffield United goal and wheeled away in celebration. His goal clinched promotion for the Eagles in the most dramatic fashion.
After securing promotion, Palace's stay in the top-flight was brief as they finished bottom in their first season back.
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