Top 50 Palace Games Countdown: No.4 - Palace 5 Brighton 0

Originally published on www.fiveyearplanfanzine.co.uk, 2 August

Saturday 26th October 2002

Whilst most of the games in this illustrious Top 50 list concern important victories that sealed promotion, fought off relegation or simply gained a valuable three points, Saturday 26th October 2002 saw an altogether different type of contest. A seaside team from 40 odd miles away was making the journey up the A23 to Selhurst Park to battle an old adversary it hadn’t seen since 1988. 13 years and all that distance had, if anything, intensified the rivalry. This wasn’t about points, this was about pride.

As if a Palace-Brighton fixture wasn’t enough, this was also a game with a number of interesting sub-plots. The Seaweed, in an attempt to emulate their esteemed opponents, had recruited a couple of Palace old boys to bring to the party. Simon Rodger contented himself with a place on the bench, but all eyes were on Steve Coppell as he attempted to mastermind the downfall of his previous club. Of course, Coppell received a very warm reception, but it did leave the Palace faithful with a slightly bitter taste in the mouth.

This was also one of those rare occasions where Palace went into a match as favourites, although that was more to do with Brighton’s poor form than Trevor Francis’ samba football. Eleven straight defeats had seen the ‘weed languishing at the bottom of the table, and looking apprehensively towards a swift return to Division 2. And all this with talismanic striker Bobby ‘he’ll never amount to anything’ Zamora in their ranks. Palace too had hit something of a bump in the road, and the pressure was mounting on Francis. The previous game summed up our recent performances – drawing 2-2 having been 2 nil up after 75 minutes in our ‘away’ game against Wimbledon (thanks Shipperley).

The biggest gate of the season meant the atmosphere in the ground was electric, tampered only by the news that a few scuffles outside had meant kick off had to be delayed by 15 minutes. It didn’t matter though, as Palace were on the front foot from the get go. Barely four minutes had gone by when a looping corner from Julian Gray was volleyed back into the mix by Danny Granville, and Andy Johnson was at hand to delicately poke it home. In unusual fashion the Eagles continued to press, and were unlucky to have a Tony Popovic header from another corner ruled out because of a foul.

It was another Gray corner on 35 minutes that saw the Johnson score his second. Whipped low and hard to the near post, AJ dived acrobatically to nod it past ‘keeper Michael Kuipers to leave the Palace fans happy and in great voice come the half time whistle. This was Palace though, we had to remind ourselves, and as comfortable as the first half performance was it would presumably be a tighter second half affair –wouldn’t it?

We needn’t have worried though. Less than 10 minutes had passed after the restart when the Doog set AJ off and his little legs did the rest. Scurrying into the box with three players trailing in his wake, AJ was met by Danny Cullip who decided it was best to stop him by all means, unceremoniously dumping him on the floor, and the referee was given no choice but to award the penalty. With Palace fans calling for Johnson to be given the honours, Freedman instead stepped up and calmly smashed the ball into the roof of the net. This, AJ decided, would not do, and so he promptly won another penalty in almost a carbon copy of the first decision. This time the Scot could afford to be a little more generous, and so Johnson gratefully received the chance of a hat-trick, rolling the ball into the bottom right-hand corner. Brighton’s Paul Brooker was given his marching orders for this latest misdemeanor, wisely deciding to get out of Selhurst Park as quickly as he could.

By this stage the Palace fans were in full party mood, and the stadium was practically rocking. Everyone was happy, it seemed, apart from Julian Gray. Always an admirer of sexy football, he decided that two penalties were no way to end this mouth-watering match. Skipping past the bedraggled Brighton defenders, he rounded off the historic game with a beautiful fizzing shot low into the net.

After the game Francis claimed his side could have scored six or seven, but five suited me perfectly thank you very much. The performance more than matched the occasion, and in Johnson a Palace hero was born (he would go on to score another three goals in the following game against Walsall). As much as we love to hate Brighton, our games against them always promise to be something special. Bring on 27th September.