Back in the Day: October 19th - Andy Johnson Scores First League Goal for Palace

Saturday 19th October 1968

Crystal Palace 2-1 Bristol City

League Division Two – Att: 15,033

Manager: Bert Head

Bert Head’s Crystal Palace continued their march towards promotion to the top flight as goals from Bobby Woodruff and Mark Lazarus (below) saw off the Robins at Selhurst Park.

Thursday 19th October 1978

'Hillsborough Hero' Clint Hill was born. The hardman defender would play 127 times for the Eagles between 2007-2010, scoring 6 times. However, he will be remembered by most Palace fans for two things. Temporarily replacing the injured Julian Speroni in goal and pulling off an incredible save from point-blank range and fighting his way off the pitch after surviving relegation at Hillsborough in 2010.

 

Saturday 19th October 1985

Portsmouth 1-0 Crystal Palace

League Division Two - Att: 16,538

Manager: Steve Coppell

Palace Links: Academy graduates Vince Hilaire and Billy Gilbert both turned out for Pompey in this one.

Saturday 19th October 2002

Wimbledon 2-2 Crystal Palace

League Division One – Att: 6,538

Manager: Trevor Francis

This game would be sooner forgotten by most Palace fans as Trevor Francis’ Eagles let slip a two goal lead slip in an away fixture at Selhurst Park. Julian Gray had given Palace the lead on 15 miunutes before Andy Johnson looked to have sealed the points on 71 minutes.

Wimbledon had other ideas, however, and Neil Shipperley (77) and Patrick Agyemang (79) scored to see the spoils shared.

The reason this game is significant, however, is because it was the first time that AJ scored a league goal for the club. Previous to this his only strike had come in extra time of a first round league cup tie against Plymouth. In the league he had made ten appearances without a goal at the start of his Palace career and he was the butt of many a joke amongst Palace fans.

I personally lost my patience with him in an away game at Sheffield Wednesday. He hit the post from 2 yards out with the goal gaping, up I jumped in a rage and spun to my friend Dave and proclaimed – “that man will never score goals”. Six weeks later he had scored EIGHT times in four consecutive games including a hat-trick against Brighton. I therefore personally take credit for his goal scoring antics…

Tuesday 19th October 2010

Norwich City 1-2 Crystal Palace

Championship – Att: 24,975

Manager: George Burley

Norwich were challenging for promotion and Palace were challenging to be literally the worst team in every single area of the pitch under George Burley. The Eagles were yet to record a League victory on the road and nothing but a convincing home win was expected.

However, Crystal Palace tore up the form book and dominated the first half, but with Wilfried Zaha (unsurprisingly) and Keiran Djilali (surprisingly) running rings around the hosts, the Eagles failed to find the back of the net and were made to pay just two minutes before the break. Grant Holt scored and every man and his dog expected the floodgates to open in the second half.

Instead, Burley’s valiant underdogs continued to dominate the game and the goals eventually came, albeit from the most unlikely of sources. First Julian Bennett (below) and then Anthony Gardner scored from corners to give the visitors the lead. Several chances to wrap up the victory came and went before the referee sounded the final whistle and out the Canaries out of their misery.

Norwich would cruise to promotion that season and lose just four games at home. Palace would survive by the skin of their teeth yet took four points from second-placed Norwich – football is 'a funny old game'.

One of our goal scorers that day might be a bit of an unknown to many Palace fans. Julian Bennett was on loan to Palace from Nottingham Forest and played just 13 times for the Eagles but did well at left back for us. Other than this goal he is probably only remembered for a rumoured training ground bust-up with Edgar Davids in which during a grapple with the former Dutch international the dreadlocked midfielder yelled at Bennett “I am the boss around here!” Probably tabloid nonsense but hilarious nonetheless.

Unfortunately, Julian Bennett had to hang up his boots at the age of 30 due to persistent injury problems.

Friday 19th October 2012

Crystal Palace start selling Wilfried Zaha posters in the Club shop.

All Results

What Happened Yesterday?

October 18th

Crystal Palace beat Fulham 5-2 in 1930 thanks to, in part, Bert Harry.