…or something about their wings being clipped ? I dunno… I’ll come back to this when I’ve got a better title.

This is the other post looking at two teams with two common denominators:
1) They are in a financial crisis and 2) but they are still in the FA Cup.

The club featured yesterday are close to being wound up in court. Late Update: Notts County have a new owner. Yet another false dawn ? We’ll see.

Sadly for this next lot though things are far worse because they went into administration a few weeks back and (at the time or writing) there’s nothing on the horizon in regards to a rescue.

The club administrators went as far as banging an advert in the FT, but still didn’t get a sniff.
I think they went with the wrong publication – this would have worked better.

This isn’t the first time Crystal Palace have been in admin. It happened previously in the year 2000 and the Singapore financier Jerry Lim bought the club when it was only hours from extinction. He then immediately sold it to the frustrated football-turned-millionaire businessman Simon Jordan, who is another one of those outspoken/colourful chairmen.

– For a full blow by blow history of Jordan’s time at the club start reading from here.

Like the other day I’m concentrating on their better times when Palace were in the (old) First Division and through to an FA Cup Final.

The year was 1990 and… “Nineteen Ninety…time for the Guru…”   (stop that)… and Crystal Palace in order to appear in that years final had to get past Liverpool in the Semis first. The same Liverpool team who had put 9 past them only seven months earlier. The match was an epic encounter which went to extra time and eventually it was Alan Pardew who put them into the final.

Their eventual cup final opponents also had a high scoring end-to-end encounter in their Semi against Joe Royle’s Division Two side Oldham Athletic. Like the Palace/Liverpool encounter it was three-all going into extra time. But nobody could find a winner and it went to a replay and again another half an hour was needed after the 90 until Mark Robins in the 114th minute finally settled it.

On to the 12th May 1990 and once again it was the number 3 involved, as well as yes… extra time.
Repetition was the key for this year because it wasn’t decided that day and unlike now back then it wasn’t decided on pens, but another replay five days later still at Wembley.

Unlike the previous matches this replay was a tight low scoring one and in the 59th minute it was Lee Martin who scored the only goal to give Alex Ferguson his first major trophy.

As we now know 1990 was a football and musical year, with New Order recruiting John Barnes for the England/World Cup song and for the FA Cup Final both teams released a single. Man Utd went with err… a Scotsman and some bagpipes… but (thankfully for us) Crystal Palace decided to do it themselves:

» Crystal Palace 1990 FA Cup Squad – Glad All Over – plus the (scratchy) B Side – » Crystal Palace 1990 FA Cup Squad – Where Eagles Fly

EXTRA TIME: Ah that YouTube… what a treasure it is… I found some solid gold in the form of the Palace 1990 team appearing on the Derek Jameson show “singing” their cup final song:

Oh I haven’t mentioned who was on that team and singing above; In there you will find Nigel Martyn, Geoff Thomas and one ohmygodIcantstoptalkinglistentothesoundofmyvoice Mark “Brighty” Bright.
Now you’ll go and watch.

Extra Extra Time:
I also found this excellent and very funny video of a Top Of The Pops/Crystal Palace countdown:

And Finally… Ah I know you are going to ask, so here’s the original:

“Eagles !”