2012/13 - Part One: A challenging start

Over the next two weeks, you can follow the account of Club Historian Ian King on cpfc.co.uk, telling the story of a dramatic campaign – with a little help from the stars of When Eagles Dare, now available to watch on Palace TV+.

Read Part One of the series below.

Rebuild required

With Dougie Freedman completing his first full campaign as manager, Crystal Palace ended the 2011/12 Championship season in 17th, which, although they were a long way clear of the relegation places, felt like a disappointment.

The campaign ended in underwhelming fashion with just two points from the final seven games earned by 18 debutants, nine of whom had been on loan.

But having been so close to collapse just two years before, Palace fans and players could accept survival was the goal, and that a rebuild was urgently needed.

It was already known Nathaniel Clyne would leave, so the club moved fast to replace him with Joel Ward at the end May, signing the right-back for £400,000 from Portsmouth and beating off interest from clubs including Leeds United

Fans hoped that one of the loanees, Aleksandar Tunchev, would be persuaded to join from Leicester; they would later be disappointed.

Behind the scenes first-team coach and former player Tony Popovic returned to Australia as manager of West Sydney, and Curtis Fleming moved up from being a Development coach.

In the summer of the London Olympics and the European Championships, the club also applied for Category One Academy status – a feat not achieved until 2020.

There were other departures beyond Clyne, as Sean Scannell signed for Huddersfield Town in a £900,000 deal and then, a little surprisingly, Darren Ambrose moved to Birmingham City, leaving fans with the memory of his goal at Old Trafford in the quarter-final of the League Cup.

At the beginning of July defender Aaron Martin arrived on a season-long loan from Southampton as part of the £2 million Clyne deal, and forward Aaron Wilbraham came on a free transfer from Norwich City.

Pre-season pitfalls

A planned training camp in Exeter was abandoned after a day due to torrential rain which rendered the pitches unplayable and the proposed fixture at Exeter City was cancelled and replaced with a visit to Lewes.

With no new signings on the horizon and the squad looking somewhat threadbare a number of players received trials in pre-season friendlies.

These started with a 5-1 victory at the Dripping Pan over Lewes which was followed up eight days later in Hampshire when Palace defeated Aldershot 2-0, before a 1-2 defeat at Welling United emphasised the squad’s lack of depth.

These three games featured the likes of goalkeeper Péter Kurucz (West Ham), Jose Baxter (Everton), Jamie Proctor (Preston), and Tomás Díaz, Ugo Ukay and Tiago Rosa.

A 1-0 success at Swindon came on August 8th – the same day Peter Ramage (one of the previous season’s loan players) signed on a free transfer from Queens Park Rangers – but a further defeat (0-2) came three days later at Premier League new boys Reading.

Wilbraham, Zaha and Jermaine Easter were the only forwards to find the net in those games and there was an air of concern among Palace supporters for the coming campaign. With a disappointing sp.ell behind them Palace’s season began three days later.

14th August: Exeter City 1-2 Palace

(League Cup)

Weeks after an aborted pre-season in the south-west, oddly the season began with this first round League Cup tie in Devon. Three players made their debuts: Ward and Martin started and Wilbraham came off the bench.

The Grecians drew first blood, scoring after just two minutes, but midway through the first-half Easter converted a soft penalty awarded for handball.

Just before the break Wilfried Zaha chased a ball into the box and lofted it in for Kagisho Dikgacoi to head home.

Further chances came Palace’s way after the break for Easter and KG, and Martin saw his header cleared off the line. Wilbraham came on for captain Glenn Murray with 12 minutes remaining and landed a couple of headers.

That same evening Leicester City won 4-0 down the road in Torquay, with Jamie Vardy scoring his first of many goals for the Foxes.

18th August: Palace 2-3 Watford

Julián Speroni, Jonathan Parr and captain Mile Jedinak made their first appearances of the season in this clash, with Wilbraham starting up front, and again Palace were awarded a penalty for their first goal when Zaha was fouled after 13 minutes.

Owen Garvan converted the spot kick but nine minutes later Watford levelled when Speroni spilled a shot and Martin Taylor equalised.

Speroni made up for this just before the half-hour mark as his long kick upfield found Garvan, who fired home for his brace.

That is how the score remained until the final two minutes when a pair of Watford’s new players scored with efforts from outside the box, one from Matej Vydra coming with virtually the last kick of the game.

Alphabetically Blackpool were the early leaders of the nPower Championship while Palace were the only one of nine losing clubs to score a goal, putting them 16th – one place above Brighton.

21st August: Bristol City 4-1 Palace

The same starting XI took to the field at Ashton Gate, while Yannick Bolasie was again missing from City’s lineup having handed in a transfer request.

The Eagles found themselves two goals down after the first 13 minutes to winless City despite already having a couple of chances. Again uncertainty in defence was their downfall, failing to clear after a corner, and then an innocuous punt was mis-controlled and Martyn Woolford chipped Speroni from the edge of the box.

Matters improved after half- time but then Dean Moxey fouled Jon Stead in the penalty area and the striker scored from the spot. With 15 minutes left Zaha and Garvan combined for Dikgacoi to reduce the arrears during the Eagles’ best spell, but then Albert Adomah sealed it for City with an unstoppable drive past Speroni from the edge of the area.

Blackpool still headed the table, but Palace now slipped into the bottom two places with Peterborough United as the only sides without a point.

There was a lot of work to do, as Steve Parish and Dougie Freedman sat down to discuss who they needed next.

Their decisions paid dividends within weeks...

Relive the full story of Palace's incredible 12/13 season through When Eagles Dare, now available to watch on Palace TV+.

The series was made in-house by Palace TV and first shown on Amazon Prime Video. You’ll hear the inside story of how Steve Parish and the 2010 consortium won tense negotiations with the fans’ support, how Dougie Freedman set the team up for success and the way Ian Holloway guided them forward.

There are exclusive interviews with all the key figures – including Parish, Freedman, Holloway, Wilfried Zaha, Damien Delaney, Yannick Bolasie, Jonny Williams, Mile Jedinak and many others – and previously unseen footage from behind the scenes.

Palace fanzine Five Year Plan wrote of the series: "This documentary is a love letter. Not just to the Palace team of 2012/2013, but to the people and the moments that make these stories so compelling. To the fans, the players and the club that sits at the heart of a South London community. Our community. Our Palace."