History of Crystal Palace F.C.

[15] Following their promotion, Palace started their second season as a professional club competing in the Southern League First Division, finishing in nineteenth place, but having enjoyed better form in the FA Cup.

They also retained the London Challenge Cup, defeating Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 in the final at Highbury, and defender Horace Colclough was called up by England to play in the team that beat Wales in Cardiff on 16 March 1914.

[22] Back in 1919, the Palace minute book contained an entry instructing the Secretary to investigate the possibility of obtaining a lease on the 'ground at Selhurst', although calling it a 'ground' was a little misleading since at the time it was a piece of wasteland valuable only to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company.

A win in the last game at home to Oldham Athletic would have secured survival, but Palace lost by a single goal and it would be almost 40 years before the club would again grace the second level of English football.

[29] On Wednesday 18 April 1962, Palace achieved distinction when the great Real Madrid team of that era made their first ever appearance in London in a friendly match at Selhurst Park to celebrate the opening of the club's new floodlights, and it was only two weeks before the Spanish giants were to due to play Benfica in the European Cup final.

[34] It was played regularly before the start of home games, with the Palace fans banging on advertising hoardings in time with the drum beat in the chorus of the song and it remains the club's anthem today.

Palace had never won a London derby in the top flight up to this point, but Cannon, who had come through the youth ranks, marked the Chelsea striker Peter Osgood out of the game and then scored the second goal in a 2–0 win to begin a long career with the club.

The new season saw the introduction of a three-up, three-down promotion and relegation system, and Palace struggled to adjust to life in the Second Division, failing to win any of their first fifteen league games.

Palace again failed to gain promotion the following season, distracted in part by their run in the FA Cup which took the club to the semi-finals, beating Leeds United and Chelsea along the way, before losing 0–2 to Southampton at Stamford Bridge on 3 April 1976.

Allison resigned at the end of the season, partly because of the failure to get Palace promoted, but he had also come under scrutiny due to some of his off the field antics, which included being photographed in the team bath with actress and glamour model Fiona Richmond.

At half-time the deadlock had not been broken despite Palace's dominance, but a second-half cross from Vince Hilaire allowed Ian Walsh to head the opener, before a great run by David Swindlehurst was completed by a finish from outside the penalty area to give the Eagles a 2–0 win.

However an equaliser by Andy Gray with just two minutes remaining took the tie into extra-time, with the winner for the Eagles scored by Alan Pardew in a thrilling 4–3 victory and for the first time in their history, Palace had reached the FA Cup Final.

Ian Wright then equalised immediately after coming on as a substitute to take the final into extra-time, before scoring again early in the added period to put Palace back in the lead.

[62] Steve Coppell returned to the club as technical director, with Ray Lewington handling first team affairs assisted by former Palace player Peter Nicholas at the start of the 1995–96 season.

[69] Goldberg's initial plans involved the club becoming part owned by Juventus,[70] and it was from this source that Palace gained two Italian stars, Attilio Lombardo and Michele Padovano.

[72] The pair failed to achieve an improvement in form and Palace were demoted back to the second tier, having won just two home games all season and finishing bottom of the table with 33 points.

[81] Long-serving coach and former Palace player Steve Kember was put in temporary charge of the first team alongside Terry Bullivant,[82] and relegation was avoided on the last day of the season with an 87th-minute Dougie Freedman goal away to Stockport County.

[84] After a good start to the season, Bruce attempted to walk out on the club after only four months in charge following an approach by Birmingham City to become their new manager,[85][86] and was put on gardening leave for a short period.

[91] Kember led Palace to victories in their opening three games of the 2003–04 Division One campaign, which put the club at the top of the table, but was sacked at the beginning of November after a dismal spell of form saw them drop near to the relegation zone.

[105] The 2009–10 season began with the club in financial uncertainty after failing to pay bonuses to former players, as well as money owed to Bristol City for the transfer of Australian international midfielder Nick Carle twelve months before.

[110] Paul Hart was appointed caretaker manager along with former Palace players Dougie Freedman and John Pemberton returning to the club as assistant and first team coach respectively.

[112] Following the end of the season, Freedman replaced Hart as temporary manager and the club emerged from administration owned by a consortium of wealthy fans called CPFC 2010.

[113] The consortium praised the efforts of the Palace fans who led a campaign which helped secure the freehold of Selhurst Park by putting pressure on Lloyds Bank to sell the ground back to the club.

[114] The CPFC 2010 consortium, consisting of businessmen Steve Parish, Martin Long, Stephen Browett and Jeremy Hosking,[115] appointed former Scotland boss George Burley as the club's new manager for the 2010–11 season, with Dougie Freedman remaining as his assistant.

[123] In the midst of the managerial change from Burley to Freedman, the club announced plans to relocate back to the site of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, built on their original home, and redeveloping it into a 40,000-seater, purpose-built football stadium.

[125] Palace were also enjoying a good League Cup run that saw them beat Crawley Town, Wigan Athletic, Middlesbrough, and Southampton which set up a quarter final tie away at Manchester United.

[134] Palace met Watford at Wembley in the final, winning 1–0 courtesy of a Kevin Phillips penalty in extra-time which ensured a return to the Premier League for the Eagles after an eight-year absence.

[138] In January, former Palace player Alan Pardew was confirmed as the new manager, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract with the club after a compensation package of £3.5 million was agreed with Newcastle United for his release.

[141] On 26 June 2017, former Dutch international Frank de Boer signed a three-year deal to become the club's first ever permanent foreign manager,[142] but was sacked after losing all of his first four games in the league.

[144] However poor results continued for a few more games, and Palace achieved the unenviable record of the worst start to a season in English football history with seven successive defeats and no goals scored.