29th May 2004
Crystal Palace 1-0 West Ham United
Shipperley
Crystal Palace: Vaesen, Butterfield (Powell 69), Popovic, Leigertwood, Granville, Routledge, Riihilahti, Derry, Hughes, Shipperley, Johnson. Subs Not Used: Freedman, Berthelin, Black, Watson.
West Ham: Bywater, Repka, Dailly, Melville, Mullins, Harewood (Reo-Coker 68), Carrick, Lomas, Etherington, Zamora (Deane 68), Connolly (Hutchison 74). Subs Not Used: Srnicek, Brevett.
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It was heartbreak for West Ham when they lasted faced Crystal Palace nearly eight years ago, the Hammers were favourites for the tie, but it was the Eagles, who only made the play-off final thanks to a own goal on the final day by Hammers very own Brian Deane, who made it to the Premier League.
As expected in the what is arguably the biggest game in British football, the nerves got the better of the two sides during the early exchanges, Palace had the first real chance to opening the scoring, Wayne Routledge picked out Andrew Johnson, but his header was off target.
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West Ham were quick to counter attack and Bobby Zamora was unlucky not find a way past Palace ‘keeper Vaesen, after he latched onto Michael Carrick’s through-ball. West Ham had to rely on Thomas Repka to keep the scores level at half-time, Stephen Bywater dived bravely at the feet of Michael Hughes, which sparked a goal mouth clearance, before Repka cleared off the line.
West Ham came out of the blocks flying after half-time and had Vaesen to thank, after he made a superb one handed save from Steven Lomas’ 25 yard volley. It was Palace who made the break through however, with Bywater only able to palm Johnson’s shot, the veteran Niel Shipperley was waiting to pounce and swing the tie in Palace’s favour.
The Hammers twice had the ball in the net, firstly through David Connolly and Zamora, but both were rightly ruled out for offside, and as hard as West Ham tried they couldn’t find a way through the Palace defence and it was heartbreak for the Hammers fans.
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Palace’s stay in the Premier League would only last a season as they were relegated back to the Championship, but for West Ham, they would banish the demons of the defeat by beating Preston North End in the 2005 play off final, meaning they would return to the promised land.
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