By Keith Brody

This season was a triumph for Palace, winning the Football League championship at something of a canter, and winning the most points of any team in the league in the process!

If relegation a year earlier had been unexpected, given the quality of the Palace squad, an immediate return to the top had not been widely predicted within the game in general, even though with only two exceptions, Palace had managed to retain all the key players in their Premiership side.

The season started, in fact, on a dreadful note, with a 0-0 home draw against Tranmere, followed by an 0-2 reversal at Bristol City. But in what was a critical midweek game, Palace turned the tide with a 2-0 win over Forest, followed up by thrashing highly-rated Portsmouth 5-1, then gained an away win at Birmingam by a score of 4-2. They went top of the table in October, then hung around the top five until taking over the top place again with a 1-0 win away to fellow contenders Tranmere at Christmas. Thereafter, they were never displaced.

If there was a key moment in the season, it was perhaps the signing of Paul Stewart on loan from Liverpool in January. Stewart steadied the young side whose grip on the top spot looked somewhat tenuous at times, and Palace went from strength to strength.

Pulling away from their rivals, often by leaps and bounds, Palace secured certain promotion in mid-April with a victory at Luton, and, in the end, won the title by seven points from Forest. The gap to third place was almost double that amount.

In cup competitions (some would say fortunately) Palace made little progress, allowing them to give their full attention to the more important matter of promotion. Of note only is the League Cup game at Premiership-side Everton, which Palace led 2-0 late into the game before defensive mistakes allowed Everton to gain a somewhat undeserved 2-2 draw.

Palace's Player of the Year was Chris Coleman. Top scorer was Chris Armstrong. Internationals included Eric Young and Chris Coleman (Wales), Darren Patterson (Northern Ireland "B"), Nigel Martyn and Chris Armstrong (England "B"), and Dean Gordon and Bruce Dyer (England U-21).

The club, as noted, won the most points in the league's three divisions. They had an excellent disciplinary record (only 30 bookings, one sending off.) They won 27 games (I believe the most in the football league) and lost only 10, 9 not counting defeat in a rather meaningless final game.

Alan Smith won the Manager of the Month award at least three times, and I imagine, although I cannot confirm, that he would have been voted First Division Manager of the Year.

Keith Brody

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