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Your team's favourite five matches

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
This may catch on, or it may be one of my tumbleweed efforts. Your team's favourite five matches with links, if possible, and brief reasons. My reasons were originally much more detailed but I figures that the mods would ban me for boring everyone silly. It doesn't have to be football, but mine are for Crystal Palace FC.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Match 1: 16th December 1972 – Division 1
Crystal Palace 5, Manchester United 0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r0nQA5Quug
United were a mess, but Palace did play some glorious football, with Don Rogers outdoing Pele for the third goal. Ultimately this match was meaningless as we were relegated five months later, but a 5-0 win against Manchester United is a special memory for those of us who were lucky enough to be there.


Match 2: 28th January 1976 – FA Cup 4th Round
Leeds United 0, Crystal Palace 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSKrnyeGXvw
We were in the third division. Leeds weren’t as strong as they had been, but had been good enough to reach last year’s European Cup Final and they fielded ten internationals. Our star player was Peter Taylor, who was soon in the England team; one of only three third division players to achieve that. After Bremner’s early shot, Leeds didn’t create a thing. Palace could easily have had another couple.


Match 3: 29th September 1979 – Division 1
Crystal Palace 4, Ipswich Town 1
https://rednbluearmy.co.uk/articles...rystal-palace-top-english-football-first-time
No TV coverage of this one, but it was the high point for the ‘Team of the 80s’ against a very good Ipswich side. The significance of the match being that this was the only time in their history that Palace have held top place in the top flight. I was there and you’ll have to take my word for how well they played.


Match 4: 8th April 1990 – FA Cup Semi Final
Crystal Palace 4, Liverpool 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkOqYoNZSCA
Liverpool were all-conquering and we’d lost 9-0 at Anfield at the start of the season, so no-one gave us a prayer. Especially when Rush put them ahead, as Liverpool had never lost when he scored. So much for all that. The greatest FA Cup semi-final ever put Palace in their first ever Cup Final.


Match 5: 7th April 1991 – The Zenith Data Systems Cup Final
Crystal Place 4, Everton 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttmOn5l5P6w
The ZDS Cup remains our only trophy, helped by Ian Wright brilliantly repeating his two-goal performance from the previous year’s FA Cup Final. Just reward for Palace’s best ever team being deprived of participating in the UEFA Cup after finishing third in the old First Division.
 
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vcs

Request Your Custom Title Now!
How about the 3-3 draw with Liverpool in the year of the Gerrard slip?
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
How about the 3-3 draw with Liverpool in the year of the Gerrard slip?
Yes, that was hugely enjoyable. The other recent one was the 3-2 at City last season. That was the one that I nearly included actually, as it was so astonishing. I suppose the nature of things is that's the games we experience earlier in our lives that really impact us emotionally, so there's a number of other games from the 1970s that are up there with my favourites, whereas play-off wins in the 1990s and 2000s kind of merge into much of a muchness. The game that should be there is the 1990 Cup Final, but we couldn't hold onto 3-2 lead; something which still smarts, so it isn't one of my favourites although it was memorable. The more recent Cup Final loss to United less so.
 
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Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
I’m going for my favourite game against Crystal Palace instead.

Plymouth 2 Crystal Palace 1 FA Cup 2nd Round December 14th 1974.
Big Mal came home and Terry Venables missed a penalty with the last kick of the game. Both teams were in the third tier. We got promoted and the following season Palace had their famous run to the Semifinals while still in the third tier. All about boyhood nostalgia rather than great quality
 

flibbertyjibber

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Exeter City 1 Shrewsbury Town 2 May 6th 2000.
The great escape, in the relegation zone going into the game and heading out of the league and Mickey Brown scored twice to send Chester down instead.

Shrewsbury Town 2 Everton 1 January 4th 2003.
FA Cup giant killing with Nigel Jemson the hero with both goals as we beat our former player David Moyes side as we were lead by Kevin Ratcliffe who had mastered the great escape above. We went down and out of the league a few months later.

Shrewsbury Town 1 Aldershot 1 AET Shrewsbury win 3-0 on penalties. 16th May 2004 Conference play off final.
Back in the league 12 months later after a dire boring season in the Conference and winning successive penalty shootouts to go up. Trevor Challis scored the winning penalty and Scott Howie saved the penalties from close to the 6 yard line. Jimmy Quinn as manager left soon into the next season with us struggling, did a job and walked away and is still regarded fondly for doing both things. Possibly the most wretched nervewracking match I will ever see with the greatest finale.

Shrewsbury Town 3 Plymouth Argyle 1 19th January 2002
1-0 down in 5 minutes and down to 10 men after 17 when Greg Rioch was sent off we were simply brilliant after that and battered the eventual runaway champions and earned a comprehensive win thanks to goals from Luke Rodgers, Sam Aiston and Ryan Lowe.

Will add a 5th later.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Exeter City 1 Shrewsbury Town 2 May 6th 2000.
The great escape, in the relegation zone going into the game and heading out of the league and Mickey Brown scored twice to send Chester down instead.

Shrewsbury Town 2 Everton 1 January 4th 2003.
FA Cup giant killing with Nigel Jemson the hero with both goals as we beat our former player David Moyes side as we were lead by Kevin Ratcliffe who had mastered the great escape above. We went down and out of the league a few months later.

Shrewsbury Town 1 Aldershot 1 AET Shrewsbury win 3-0 on penalties. 16th May 2004 Conference play off final.
Back in the league 12 months later after a dire boring season in the Conference and winning successive penalty shootouts to go up. Trevor Challis scored the winning penalty and Scott Howie saved the penalties from close to the 6 yard line. Jimmy Quinn as manager left soon into the next season with us struggling, did a job and walked away and is still regarded fondly for doing both things. Possibly the most wretched nervewracking match I will ever see with the greatest finale.

Shrewsbury Town 3 Plymouth Argyle 1 19th January 2002
1-0 down in 5 minutes and down to 10 men after 17 when Greg Rioch was sent off we were simply brilliant after that and battered the eventual runaway champions and earned a comprehensive win thanks to goals from Luke Rodgers, Sam Aiston and Ryan Lowe.

Will add a 5th later.
That Plymouth game was completely ignored on our VHS of the season. All goals from the other 45 games were on it, but not that one.
 

grecian

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Personal for me.

Exeter City 1 Cambridge United 0 2008 Play-off
https://youtu.be/sdJwQnGtHp4

Controversial, but for context you have to know how much I utterly despised and hated the time in the Conference, lost the year before, and started the year poorly, thought we would never get out of the ****ing nightmarish hell.

In the end it felt like the end of a narrative too, we were so close to going out of business when we were relegated, that getting through to this point was salvation.

Exeter City 3 Leicester City 1 1981 FA cup fourth round replay
https://youtu.be/9dQ2zoNhWjQ

Never a penalty looking back at it, but who gives a ****. On that tape you can hear clearly someone say "that's the winner" before the pen goes in, he was stood just behind me, and I remember being in shock for a fraction of a second that someone was tempting fate so. We went onto beat Newcastle, but I wasn't there as my dad wouldn't allow me to go, because he said the fans were animals in the first leg. Lost to Spurs in the quarters, not bad performance considering it was the Ossie-Ricky-Hoddle team, two defenders scored on set-pieces after we helde them for a long time. This run was huge, back when the Cup was probably the biggest comp in the country, we were on TV a lot. remember they used to show division 3 and 4 games on match of the day, think we had a Millwall 5-4 shown, in front of a packed crowd, as we were giving out vouchers for the Newcastle game I think.

Plymouth Argyle 0 Exeter City 3 1993
https://youtu.be/9N8mC1gpX8g

Yes I had to have a parochial one in here, basically a match between world cup winner Alan Ball, and World Cup loser Peter Shilton, who amusingly said when we beat them in the first match 2-0 he didn't have a save to make, well he could have saved the two that went in, and the three, yes count them three disallowed goals we had chalked off. It's one of those matches that if everyone that said they were there was there, it would have been 20 k in the away end, but I was there, watching the most hideous away kit ever produce a macnificent result. Think Plymouth eyes may have been scorched by the pure awfulness of that strip.

If it had been up to me, I wouldn't have been there, on the drive down to the road-to-hell (no tickets sold themadays), it started bucketing down, real biblical stuff, so being a genuine fair-weather fan me and the other passenger wanted it turned around, but the driver did not acquiesce thankfully. Interesting with all the die-hard Exeter fans that said they were there one was not really a football fan, and the other (the driver) a Man U fan, but hey we all had fun on the day.

Man U 0 Exeter City 0 2005

Said Man U fan was at this match too, but not at our end. Yeah we all know it was a weakened United side and United were going through a crap run, but who gives a ****. Started out just happy to be there, was quite happy that the ref wasn't going to call every time flack challenged someone a foul, which did happen with loads of refs, clumsy apeth that he was, but allowed us to retain some possesion. Was quite cheery at half-time that we had held them, my bro said something about how we could hold them, i laughed openly in his face. I was still relaxed up to about 60 minutes, then I started thinking, well maybe? but it was only about 70 minutes that i grudgingly started to believe and the last 15 minutes went as slow as double maths lessons in my youth.

Of course Dean Moxey's goal should be remembered to get us there was a blinder, and we beat 2 League teams to face United. Second leg and anti-climax except for this of course
https://youtu.be/IUc-8Jg5oWo

Torquay United 1 Exeter City 4 Play-off semi final 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYCvggFExI8

Obviously I like to not give the chip-nickers the time of day, let alone call them rivals, but this was fun. Paul Buckle was their manager, he'd previously been a **** midfielder and assistant manager for us, the guy that scored first in the match Tim Sill practically admitted to play-acting to get our centre-half sent off in the Plainmoor match where he scored the winner after, was a bit of a panto villain in Exeter for awhile. We utterly battered them in the first leg, but some howling defensive mistakes meant somehow we were 2-1 down coming into this match, we then went 1-0 behind, as we had at Oxford in the same situation in the play-off semi the year before (a much better performance against a better team, but it was for nought, so doesn't get in here), we then tore them a new one, four goals, pulsating football, and gulls leaving like they had just had the bins thrown out at Macdonalds, Bliss.

Thank you for not bothering to read this self-indulgent piece of badly written nonsense.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Plymouth Argyle 0 Exeter City 3 1993
https://youtu.be/9N8mC1gpX8g

Yes I had to have a parochial one in here, basically a match between world cup winner Alan Ball, and World Cup loser Peter Shilton, who amusingly said when we beat them in the first match 2-0 he didn't have a save to make, well he could have saved the two that went in, and the three, yes count them three disallowed goals we had chalked off. It's one of those matches that if everyone that said they were there was there, it would have been 20 k in the away end, but I was there, watching the most hideous away kit ever produce a macnificent result. Think Plymouth eyes may have been scorched by the pure awfulness of that strip.
I was by the tunnel on that day near the dug outs. I’ve forgotten most of the game but I recall Alan Ball throwing a hat in the air when one of the goals went in and being warned by the police for inciting the crowd.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Tranmere 2-1 Boreham Wood (National League Play Off Final)
12th May 2018

Grecian nailed it, being in the conference is the pits. It can't be described how soul destroying it is if you've been a football league club since forever. We'd lost the final the year before, and then found ourselves 18th in the conference around November at the beginning of this season. We turned if round with a fine run in the second half of the season (isn't it funny how that can happen, why not just use PPG instead), coming just too late to take the title but storming to Wembley and going into the final as massive favourites. Liam Ridehalgh then got a bit excited and found himself sent off 47 seconds in. Before we'd really settled and worked out what we needed to do, Norwood put it on a plate for Cook who put us one up. We went onto make three subs before half time as injuries struck and had a midfielder at right back by the time the whistle went, oh and Boreham Wood equalised in the 17th minute of first half injury time. I melted down at half time, told my daughter to forget it and that we'd be in the conference forever. My head was gone but with nine minutes to go, Connor Jennings - who had been on his deathbed a week earlier - crossed it in and Norwood, largely stuck out wide due to the man disadvantage, heads it in. I'm shaking now just typing this. That goal saved my club, we couldn't have stomached another year down there without turning into Wrexham. I may be biased but that final is one of the great football dramas of recent times

Everton 0-3 Tranmere (FA Cup 4th Round)
27th January 2001

****,this was 19 years ago? I'm getting old. But what can I say. Little old tranmere, bottom of the league and ultimately relegated, crossed the river and whooped our scouse friends. Years of mockery in school dissipate in a flash. The sight of an empty Goodison with 20 minutes to go, save for a bouncing away end, will stay with me until my dying breath

Tranmere 3-0 Bolton, League Cup Semi Final 2nd leg
26th January 2000

What's not to love? We earned our only major cup final appearance by beating the club who at the time were definitely our biggest rivals and the dour faced corrupt plonker managing them didn't like it one bit. A full prenton Park rocked from start to finish as we played their far more expensively assembled team off the pitch. Shame we didn't win the final, but making it there is something else for a club like us. This night was also the first time I drank beer in the pub, what a night.

Tranmere 5-2 West Ham, First Division
4th December 1992

As a kid I got to witness the greatest Tranmere team in history. I wish I'd fully appreciated that I was in the midst of something so good that I'd never see again. Here we put West Ham to the sword, thanks to a masterclass from Pat Nevin and John Aldridge. It was something else. I was only eight years old and had been to a handful of matches. Probably set me up with some expectations that have never quite been lived up to, but I can always say 'I was there'

Tranmere 1-0 Newport, League 2 play off final
25th May 2019

If we'd gone down on the pitch this year then the memories of this one would be tainted but as it stands, we were sawn off and this was stolen - the memory of this day will remain special forever. Another spring on fire from the late season specialists (yes, very bitter) saw us win 7 in a row. Norwood scored everywhere he went. But for a couple of injuries right in the run-in there is every chance we'd have made it over the line for automatics. But Wembley it was to be, and it wasn't the best game but Connor Jennings popped up in the last minute of extra time to secure back to back promotions and we all went wild. The party the next day back home was like nothing else. From the brink of becoming a pointless, borderline semi pro outfit to League One in 54 weeks. Quite the journey.

Honourable Mentions
Chester 2-3 Tranmere (a Friday night derby, this was lower league footy at its best)
Aldershot 0-3 Tranmere (years of play off anxiety put to bed with a clinical first leg, magic)
Tranmere 4-3 Southampton (FA Cup replay three down at half time, criminal I left this out but what can you do)
Forest Green 1-1 Tranmere (Wembley again, oh go on then)
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Exeter City 3 Leicester City 1 1981 FA cup fourth round replay
https://youtu.be/9dQ2zoNhWjQ

Never a penalty looking back at it, but who gives a ****. On that tape you can hear clearly someone say "that's the winner" before the pen goes in, he was stood just behind me, and I remember being in shock for a fraction of a second that someone was tempting fate so. We went onto beat Newcastle, but I wasn't there as my dad wouldn't allow me to go, because he said the fans were animals in the first leg. Lost to Spurs in the quarters, not bad performance considering it was the Ossie-Ricky-Hoddle team, two defenders scored on set-pieces after we helde them for a long time. This run was huge, back when the Cup was probably the biggest comp in the country, we were on TV a lot. remember they used to show division 3 and 4 games on match of the day, think we had a Millwall 5-4 shown, in front of a packed crowd, as we were giving out vouchers for the Newcastle game I think.
I've probably mentioned that I was at this match. Also the Newcastle and Tottenham games. Reading this last night, I wondered whether a very young Gary Lineker may have played for Leicester in this game, but he didn't. Whereas an equally young Chris Waddle was on the pitch for Newcastle in the 4-0 game. I remember a bit about the quarter final at Tottenham. It was an absolutely filthy day, which may explain Exeter's keeper spilling the ball from a free kick for someone to tap in for one of the goals. As you say, Exeter had been pretty comfortable for much of the game, with Kellow having a half chance when still 0-0.
 
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grecian

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I've probably mentioned that I was at this match. Also the Newcastle and Tottenham games. Reading this last night, I wondered whether a very young Gary Lineker may have played for Leicester in this game, but he didn't. Whereas an equally young Chris Waddle was on the pitch for Newcastle in the 4-0 game. I remember a bit about the quarter final at Tottenham. It was an absolutely filthy day, which may explain Exeter's keeper spilling the ball from a free kick for someone to tap in for one of the goals. As you say, Exeter had been pretty comfortable for much of the game, with Kellow having a half chance when still 0-0.
Apparently, Lineker's parents were told he would get a game, and came all the way down to Exeter, but he didn't, still they probably saw him in the Nou camp and the like, but how can that compare to St James Park, on a rainy Tuesday night. Was quite a late developer, 22 before he became a Leicester regular.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
I can join in this properly now I have more time.

Plymouth 3 Santos 2 – 14th March 1973

Only a friendly. But Pele was playing – so no more need be said.

QPR 0 Plymouth 3 – 30th January 1974

League Cup 4th Round and the commentary match on national radio (then Radio 2).
We were in Division 3 and QPR were riding high in Division 1 with most of the players that nearly won the League a season or two later. No resting players in those days. This was their full first team at full steam and we tore them to shreds.

Plymouth 0 Watford 1 - 14th April 1984

A defeat in a FA Cup Semi-final wouldn’t be a highlight for many, but the whole occasion was amazing and not something I envisaged at all, never mind while struggling against relegation from Division 3.

Plymouth 1 Darlington 0 – 25th May 1996 Division 4 Play Off Final
Not a great game. But our first ever trip to Wembley and only ever trip to the old Wembley.

Plymouth 1 Colchester 0 – 15th April 1975

My first promotion clinched on this night – from Division 3.

It’s impossible to really narrow it down to five definitively and on another day there are other cup ties, promotion parties and random games that I might have chosen.
To mention a couple. We beat Fulham 4-0 in the old Division 2 in 1975 and Paul Mariner gave Bobby Moore such a run around that he was substituted at half time. Another 4-0 win over Bristol City in 1986 to clinch promotion from the old Division 3.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
1) Spuds 1 Arsenal 2 86/87 League Cup semi-final replay

Seems weird now, but there was a time when the ailing second cup competition wasn't quite so much of the ginger step-child of the three domestic trophies on offer. The English were also banned from Yurp after the Heysel disaster, so it had rather more lustre than it does now.

Anyhoo, then as now the semis were decided over two legs. We lost the first leg at Highbury 1-0 to a Clive Allen goal and were two down on aggregate soon into the second leg at Shyte Hart Lane thanks to another Allen effort, so our chances looked bleak. Remarkably though replies from Viv Anderson and Niall Quinn levelled things up and, with no away goal rule (which would've seen us through) in operation the tie went to a reply after a toss for home advantage, duly lost by Kenny Samson, our then captain.

Yet another Allen goal put our nearest and undearest 1-0 in the 3rd game, but late strikes from Ian Allinson and the wonderful Rocky Rocastle (RIP :( ) took us to the final against, as cliché has had it since time immemorial, all odds.

Which leads me to:

2) Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1 86/87 League Cup final

Older readers might remember the old truism that "when Rush scores, Liverpool don't lose". This was literally true until this very game. The hatchet-faced Welsh wonder scored an awful lot of goals for yer Scousers and not once had they ever lost.

A Rush goal made it seem as if our semi heroics were going to be for nought, but two somewhat spawny goals from Champagne Charlie Nicholas (the first a scramble from a free kick and the second a wicked deflection that wrong footed Grobbelaar and just dribbled in) secured our first trophy of the Graham era.

As a post script, I'm pretty sure Rush scored in the next league fixture (Everton or Norwich, maybe?) which the Reds also lost.

3) Liverpool 0 Arsenal 2 88/89 First Division

Nuff said?

We needed to win at Anfield (where we hadn't won since like 73, I think) by two clear goals to win the title for the first time in 18 years and we only went and did it.

4) Arsenal 1 Parma 0 1993/94 Cup Winners' Cup final

It's fair to say we've not done well in European finals before or, especially, since, so this one is particularly sweet.

We'd overcome PSG in the semi (who had, in turn, dumped out Real in the quarters) and Parma were a properly good side back then, defending champions too.

Smudger Smith (still probably my favourite player) won it for us with a wonderful 20 yard volley with his left foot! For the benefit of younger readers, Smudge's left foot was usually purely for purposes of symmetry and balance, but this was a pearler for the ages.

5) Man Utd 0 Arsenal 1 97/98 Premier League

Most football fans live in a protective cocoon of pessimism. Yes, we'd beaten United 3-2 at Highbury earlier in the season but after Blackburn had turned us over 3-1 at the dear old marble halls near Xmas Fergie's boys had something like a 13 point advantage.

I think one of the major bookmakers had even paid out on United winning the title and they were something like 1/8 to retain it before this game, holding a nine point lead as they did (albeit with the Arse having games in hand).

We played United off the park that day, Adams and Keown looked imperial at the back and we probably should've won more comfortably. But 11 minutes from time Overmars latched onto an Anelka flick and coolly dispatched it into Schmeichel sr's bottom corner.

It was only then I allowed myself to believe and we actually secured the titled with a couple of games to spare and then duly completed the double in Arsene's first full season.

Good times.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
I've good memories of those latter two from a neutral perspective

The Cup Winners Cup was a highly enjoyable tournament in its pomp. Sadly by its final days it was the Cup Runners Up Cup as double winners became more regular and the CL expanded.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
5) Man Utd 0 Arsenal 1 97/98 Premier League

Most football fans live in a protective cocoon of pessimism. Yes, we'd beaten United 3-2 at Highbury earlier in the season but after Blackburn had turned us over 3-1 at the dear old marble halls near Xmas Fergie's boys had something like a 13 point advantage.

I think one of the major bookmakers had even paid out on United winning the title and they were something like 1/8 to retain it before this game, holding a nine point lead as they did (albeit with the Arse having games in hand).

We played United off the park that day, Adams and Keown looked imperial at the back and we probably should've won more comfortably. But 11 minutes from time Overmars latched onto an Anelka flick and coolly dispatched it into Schmeichel sr's bottom corner.

It was only then I allowed myself to believe and we actually secured the titled with a couple of games to spare and then duly completed the double in Arsene's first full season.

Good times.
Other great moments from this match include Alex Manninger making some fantastic saves, and Emmanuel Petit getting away with a really obvious handball in the Arsenal area in the first half.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Weirdly the Arsenal matches I remember the most are in many ways some of the least significant of my time supporting them.

Beating Middlesbrough 5-3 at Highbury in 2004 (after being 3-1 down), beating Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge in 2011 (after another hilarious John Terry slip), beating Stoke 3-1 in 2010 (in the Ramsey leg break game) are all random matches I recall being really pumped up for, but ultimately not meaning all that much.

Spanking Inter 5-1 in the San Siro in 2003 another good one.

Beating Everton 4-0 in 1998 to win the league another great memory. Overmars absolutely smoking the Everton defence, only for Tony Adams to finish it off with the 4th.
 
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