Palace boss Pardew: The FA Cup ‘owes’ me

Matt Stead

Alan Pardew believes the FA Cup “owes” him for two moments of heartbreak as a player and a manager.

The manager was a midfielder in the Crystal Palace team which lead Manchester United 3-2 in the 1990 final until the final nine minutes of extra-time, when a second Mark Hughes goal secured a 3-3 draw and replay which United ultimately won.

Ten years ago, the promising West Ham team he managed then led Liverpool by the same scoreline in perhaps the greatest cup final in history when Steven Gerrard scored an extraordinary equalising goal in the final minute of normal time before Liverpool won on penalties.

Twice Pardew has been close to what would be the finest moment of his career in winning the cup, and twice victory has eluded him. His Palace team last won in the Premier League on December 19, but they have impressively eliminated Southampton and Stoke in the cup’s third and fourth rounds since then, building a familiar sense of momentum.

“I still have the goal to win this competition,” Pardew said. “I was nine minutes away from winning it with Palace at 3-2, and we ended up drawing. Then a replay. Bloody replays!

“West Ham, 90 minutes and the game almost won apart from one magical moment. So I have been very, very close, perhaps even should have won it in extra-time. So I do think it owes me a little bit. I am going to go back and win it one day, hopefully.

“The draw can be important and does play a role and we were hoping for a better draw than we got against Spurs; it wasn’t what we wanted. (But) we didn’t like the Southampton draw or the Stoke draw and we won them.”