EAGLES DARED... AND WON
THE only question seemed to be who would Liverpool be playing in the
1990 FA Cup final?
There seemed no way Crystal Palace could stop Kenny Dalglish’s holders getting there.
Twice the sides had met that season and the aggregate score was Liverpool 11, Palace 0.
Palace striker Mark Bright said he lost count of the goals that flew in at Anfield during a 9-0 drubbing and one Liverpool player asked, “Do you train with a ball?”
Another asked the referee to count how many players each side had. Palace were completely humiliated. Later that season, there was a 2-0 defeat at Selhurst Park, keeping Liverpool on course for the title and Palace for relegation.
The Eagles showed better form in the FA Cup, getting to within 90 minutes of their first final.
For the first time, both semi-finals were screened live on the BBC on the same day – and it couldn’t have gone any better.
Manchester United and Oldham fought out a 3-3 draw – and that was the second-best match of the day.
Ian Wright missed the PalaceLiverpool match with a broken leg and it was no surprise who opened the scoring at Villa Park.
Ian Rush had scored in both the previous fixtures that season and, after 14 minutes of the semi-final, he found the target against Palace again.
Fifteen minutes later, Rush limped out of the match and, within a minute of the restart, Palace were level.
Liverpool could not clear John Pemberton’s cross and Bright slammed home an unstoppable shot.
Better was to follow for Steve Coppell’s side as Gary O’Reilly put them ahead after 70 minutes. But Steve McMahon and John Barnes, with a penalty, netted in the space of two minutes to put Liverpool 3-2 up.
That was how the score remained until the 88th minute when Palace thumped a free-kick into Liverpool’s penalty area. For a few seconds, there was chaos as the ball bounced around crazily until Andy Gray found himself in the right place at the right time to nod home the equaliser.
“This is your time,” Coppell told them, going into extra-time. “If you really want it, you can do it.”
Palace did do it. With 11 minutes left, Gray’s corner was flicked on by Andy Thorn and Alan Pardew bustled in to head in the winning goal.