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26 years ago at Villa Park, Alan Pardew scored the winning goal for Crystal Palace to knock out Liverpool and set up an FA cup final against Manchester United.
This weekend he was acting in a managerial role as goals from Yannick Bolasie and Conor Wickham assured a repeat of that historical final in 1990.
The semi-final against Watford didn’t quite have the same drama and excitement that saw a seven goal thriller all those years ago, but the passion and commitment as well as a higher quality in the final third from the Crystal Palace players was enough to beat a lack lustre and tired-looking Watford side.
There has been a noticeable surge of willingness to perform from Alan Pardew’s men ever since the return of key players from injury.
Though the results haven’t spiked to the extent that it could be merited as a complete recovery, the body language and effort from the players has notably improved, of which the clearest example was against Norwich where the emotion of scoring the winning goal brought tears to Jason Puncheon.
Apart from a loss in a relatively meaningless league fixture against Manchester United prior to the semi-final, the performances have seen Crystal Palace pick up six points in their last four, which in the context of this calendar year is a significant improvement.
If ever a season has encompassed the proverbial rollercoaster, this has been it for Crystal Palace.
After a mesmerising start that brought the Eagles to the European places at the turn of year, and level on points with Spurs, the results have tailed off in dramatic fashion.
This has had a lot to do with the aforementioned injuries to Bolasie, Puncheon, McCarthur and Wickham who had all been pivotal in Palace’s success earlier in the season but some of the responsibility must also be pinned on a complacent board and tactically naïve manager.
Much has been made of Pardew not being able to arrest this slump, as he has continuously made mistakes in picking the same losing team and expecting different results, a way of thinking that is commonly associated with a definition of madness.
However, with an FA cup final to come and the hope which it brings, there is a palpable sense of relief from palace fans that the season hasn’t petered out into nothing, unlike Everton who were in a very similar position yet squandered the opportunity.
The two most positive aspects to give Crystal Palace belief that this could be their year for cup glory is the indication that Pardew is beginning to make influential tactical changes to disperse the idea that he is indeed tactically naïve as well as the form of Wilfried Zaha.
Crystal Palace started in a 4-4-1 formation with Bolasie as a number ten, which no doubt surprised Quique Sanchez Flores. It made for a very open start to the game, but also produced a goal that was reminiscent to Pardew’s winner against Liverpool in 1990.
He then switched to a more familiar 4-2-3-1 and controlled the game from then, apart from a rocky 10 minute period, where anxiety crept in after Deeney’s equaliser.
With regards to Zaha, he has been the one player that has consistently performed in spite of the league form. He was the best player on the pitch on Sunday and gave the Watford fullbacks Nyom and Aké a torrid time. But equally impressive to his performances on the pitch is his demeanour off it.
Straight after the game he was inevitably asked about his views on facing his former employers in the final, but he calmly replied that Manchester United were “just another team” and that he had nothing against them.
He will need to maintain this aura of calmness on the pitch for the final on May 21, where the pressure and expectation will rest upon his shoulders to go one better than the team of 1990.
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