Marathon Man: The Eagle who played nearly every minute of our previous longest season

As Oliver Glasner’s side continue to balance Premier League football with a historic run to the UEFA Conference League Final, the Eagles have now surpassed the previous benchmark set by Steve Coppell’s promotion-winning team of 1988/89 – which was a marathon 59-game campaign which ended in unforgettable fashion at Selhurst Park.

Counting 30 minutes' extra-time in the last game of the season – 3rd June, 1989, but we'll come onto that in a moment – one forward played almost every single minute of the 5,340 available.

For context – with two games of the campaign remaining – Maxence Lacroix tops the minutes charts for Palace this season, on 4,752 across all competitions. Captain Dean Henderson is next up on 4,500, and Tyrick MItchell third on 4,396.

Hence, few people are better placed to reflect on the physical and mental demands of such a season than Mark Bright, who played virtually every minute of that historic 88/89 campaign, missing only a brief spell – reportedly around 10 minutes – after being substituted against Leicester City.

That campaign, the Eagles battled through league fixtures, cup competitions and the club’s first-ever play-off campaign before securing promotion back to the First Division.

Now, with Palace preparing to finish another record-breaking season with a major final, Bright can see clear parallels between the two eras.

“It was an epic season,” Bright reflected. “Coming towards the end, I think Coppell said we had to win a certain amount of games to make sure we got promotion, and we didn’t.

“We ended up in the play-offs and suddenly everything became even bigger because every game carried so much pressure.”

The 1988/89 season had begun steadily enough. Palace opened the campaign with a draw against recently relegated Chelsea, and spent much of the early months hovering around mid-table while also competing in the Littlewoods Cup and Full Members Cup.

But momentum gradually built across the second half of the season. By April, Palace were charging towards the play-off places, winning six of eight league matches to climb into the top four, with the prolific strike partnership of Bright and Ian Wright driving the promotion push.

The fixture list, however, was relentless. Including cup competitions and the play-offs, Palace would eventually play 59 matches – a club record at the time, and one which stood for nearly four decades, until this season’s side eclipsed it.

For Bright, simply getting through that volume of matches was an achievement in itself.

“I’d say it was probably the first time I’d done it and the last time I did it,” he said of starting virtually every game that season.

“It’s just a tough thing to do. Especially as a striker, because you’re constantly involved physically, you’re getting kicked, you’re sprinting, you’re challenging defenders all the time.

“The pitches weren’t as good then either. Conditions were difficult and there wasn’t really any recovery work like there is now. You just had to keep going.”

Modern footballers have access to nutritionists, cryotherapy, tailored recovery sessions and extensive sports science support. In 1989, recovery often amounted to little more than a warm-down and rest before the next game arrived.

“Everything’s better now – nutrition, cryotherapy, massages and all that,” Bright explained.

“We didn’t really have any of that. You’d come in, warm up, train or play, stretch off and go home. But football is football. It was tough on your body.”

The mental challenge, Bright says, was just as difficult as the physical one.

“You’re going into games tired,” he admitted. “It’s mentally draining as much as physically because you’re constantly preparing for the next game while still recovering from the last one.

“I remember by the summer my body was exhausted. I was just flat. No energy at all for the first couple of weeks after the season finished.”

That exhaustion only intensified once Palace entered the play-offs. After narrowly missing out on automatic promotion despite a dramatic 4-1 final-day victory over Birmingham City, Coppell’s side were thrown into a high-pressure play-off schedule against Swindon Town and Blackburn Rovers.

There was little time to recover, regroup or even reflect.

“You go from the regular season straight into massive games,” Bright recalled. “We lost 1-0 away at Swindon and then had to play again a few days later.

“But all the lads just said: ‘We haven’t come this far not to go through.’”

What followed was one of the great Selhurst Park nights. Goals from Ian Wright and Bright secured a 2-0 victory over Swindon in front of a packed and raucous home crowd, sending Palace into the play-off final against Blackburn.

The first leg at Ewood Park ended in disappointment with Palace beaten 3-1, leaving the Eagles facing another uphill battle back in South London.

But even during the long journey home from Lancashire, Bright remembers the belief within the squad.

“Coming back on the coach from Blackburn, everyone was saying: ‘We’re not going out. We haven’t come this far to go out.’

“We knew if we scored one, the atmosphere at Selhurst could carry us.”

That atmosphere remains one of Bright’s strongest memories from the season.

“When we came out for the warm-up, everybody already seemed in position. Usually fans are still coming in or having a drink, but the stadium was already buzzing.

“There was this feeling of excitement and anticipation everywhere. We had to not concede and score three – and that’s exactly what we did.”

Palace overturned the deficit in dramatic fashion, with Ian Wright’s extra-time header sealing promotion in front of a sell-out Selhurst Park crowd and sparking a pitch invasion which has since become part of club folklore.

For Bright, that unforgettable ending made the demands of the season worthwhile.

“The reward for going up was immense,” he said. “It made everything worth it.”

There are obvious similarities between that 1988/89 side and Palace’s current campaign.

Both seasons stretched deep into the calendar. Both involved constant physical demands and little recovery time. And both built towards a huge occasion at the end of an exhausting journey.

For the current squad, that occasion comes in the form of a European final – another landmark moment in Palace history.

Bright believes modern players face their own unique challenges, particularly with the intensity of today’s game and the volume of fixtures elite teams now play.

“These guys are playing every four or five days,” he said. “That’s hard.

"The more successful you are, the more matches you play because you’re in Europe, you’re in cup competitions and you’re probably away with your national team as well.

“The best players are basically playing all year round.”

Yet despite the changes in sports science, tactics and preparation across generations, Bright believes one thing remains constant.

“You just have to play the era you’re in,” he said. "You demand the best of yourself every week, perform, recover and then go again.

“That’s football.”

2026 UEFA Conference League Final

Crystal Palace v Rayo Vallecano

• Wednesday, 27th May
• 21:00 CEST local time / 20:00 BST
• Leipzig Stadium, Germany