BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Crystal Palace co-owner Steve Parish believes his side can create history and beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final at Wembley this afternoon.
Speaking to the *‘It’s Called Soccer!*’ podcast, the former Colfe’s School pupil admitted it will need an almost perfect game from the Eagles, with a bit of luck thrown in, to take the club’s first-ever major honour.
The 59-year-old said: “I’m excited for it. I really am. I’m all in. I really believe that we can do it. The manager believes he can do it, the players believe they can do it so I’m all in.
“We’ve got results against City before and we can do it again, but we know it will be tough. We will have to play our best football, show our personality and do the things we do. Dean (Henderson, goalkeeper) will probably have to have a very good day in goal. I went to last year’s final against Manchester United and City weren’t great on the day, they’d be the first to admit that, so maybe they have an off day and it’s not quite their day.
“Maybe we get a bit of luck, maybe there’s a sending off? Who knows?. It’s going to be difficult, we’re not delusional, but all we can do, as Oliver says, is go there, show our personality and give our best. If we do that, everybody will come off of the pitch happy, and the fans will be happy. We’ll give ourselves a real chance.”
Parish was also at the helm the last time the club reached the English game’s showpiece event, when they lost 2-1 to Manchester United after extra time, having led with just 12 minutes remaining.
But nine years later, the chairman thinks this time around his side is better placed for a victory.
“We were confident then, but now, maybe, we’ve got a squad that’s got a little bit more experience,” he explained. “If you look at Jefferson (Lerma) and Daniel (Munoz), they have played in Copa America finals with Colombia, and obviously Marc (Guehi) got to the Euro final with England so maybe we’re a little bit more prepared as a club than we were then, a bit more ready to do it.
“We thought we could do it 2016 and were just 12 minutes away, so we definitely believed then and we believe now we can do it.”
And for Parish, who is from Forest Hill and has overseen the promotion of the ‘South London and Proud’ tag now so closely associated for the side from SE25, he is in no doubt about what it could mean for the wider community south of the river.
“We have had a player on loan at Bradford (Tayo Adaramola, who won promotion to League One) and you saw the celebrations in the city, and the celebrations in Newcastle when they won the league cup and that’s what it would mean for our community and for South London it would mean exactly the same,” said Parish, who was part of a consortium which took over the Eagles in 2010.
“Right now, we’re trying to quell some of the enormity of that, of what it would mean, because we need to keep our professional heads on, do the right things and try and treat the week the same as every other week.
“Oliver’s mentality going into the game – he’s played a full team in every game and believes in being in a rhythm. It would just be incredible, enormous, but you’ve got to try and keep some of that in check, right? Because that can overwhelm you slightly if you’re not careful and, on the day, we need to be very clear-eyed and very clinical to beat these guys.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
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