Given their relative lack of resource at that time, Palace’s four seasons in the top-flight would be marked by constant relegation battles.
But their top-flight fortunes did start in impressive fashion with a 2-2 draw against Manchester United on the opening day of the 69/70 season, a blockbuster game featured on _Match of the Day_ and drawing a then-record 48,610 crowd to Selhurst. Mel Blyth scored the club’s first-ever top-flight goal.
Head was also the man at the helm for arguably Palace’s greatest-ever top-flight result, also against the Red Devils: a 5-0 hammering in December 1972, with his former Swindon protégé Rogers bagging a famous brace.
With Palace struggling to take the next step forwards, despite recruiting a number of players with proven top-flight experience and recording wins at both Old Trafford and Highbury in 70/71, a number of boardroom changes ahead of the 72/73 campaign spelled the beginning of the end of Head’s time as manager.
Struggling to climb away from the relegation struggle, Malcolm Allison – another influential figure in the club’s history – was appointed manager in March 1973, with Head moving upstairs to a general manager’s post until the end of the season.
Palace would ultimately suffer relegation on the last day of the 72/73 season, with Head departing the club in May.
Until the club’s current spell in the Premier League, that four-season spell under Head marked Crystal Palace’s longest-ever consecutive run at the top of the English game.
Head sadly passed away in February 2002, aged 85, but as Palace continue to grow and flourish at English football’s top table – and now compete in the latter stages of European competition for the first time – his long-standing legacy, and that of the incredible match against Fulham at Selhurst Park, lives on.