Palace fans head to FA Cup final still hurting from 1990

LONDON - Crystal Palace face Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday hoping to lift the FA Cup for the first time and it is guaranteed that high on the pre-match agenda will be the clubs extraordinary and eventually heartbreaking 1990 campaign.

The semi-finals and final(s) that year were arguably the most dramatic in the competitions long and storied history and remain the emotional high and low point of every Palace fan who watched them.

Palace were struggling in the top flight after promotion and had been humiliated 9-0 by Liverpool early in the season.

In the Cup they were hardly pulling up trees either, beating lower league Portsmouth, Huddersfield Town, Rochdale and Cambridge United to reach the semi-finals for the first time since they lost to Southampton as a third division team in 1976.

Facing runaway champions-elect and FA Cup holders Liverpool again in the semis look an insurmountable barrier and an Ian Rush goal had the Reds ahead at halftime at Villa Park.

Things then went crazy as Mark Bright and Gary OReilly gave Palace a shock lead. Two goals in two minutes put Liverpool back in front, only for Andy Gray to stun the odds-on favourites in the 88th minute to force extra time.

Amazingly, it was Palace who snatched victory in the 109th minute via Alan Pardew, who would later manage the club.

It was the first year that both semi-finals were live on TV and barely had the excitement abated when similarly unfancied Oldham ran out to face Manchester United at Maine Road.

The second division team had not beaten top-flight opposition in 66 years but accounted for four that season in a double cup run that caught the nations imagination.

Playing vibrant, attacking football under Joe Royle, Oldham twice came from behind to draw 3-3