Crystal Palace’s seesaw season ends in triumph … but now a new era begins

A fter everything Steve Parish has been through over the past 12 months, he was just about able to compose himself. The man who fell in love with Crystal Palace as an 11-year-old schoolboy when they reached the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 1976 from the old Third Division and stepped in to save his club from administration in 2010 reflected with pride on the journey that has taken them to three trophies under the shrewd management of Oliver Glasner. “It’s incredible,” said Parish after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goal against Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig sealed their triumph in the Conference League . “An amazing achievement. All the ups and downs … To get to the Europa League, where we deserve to be. It just shows you: sometimes the good guys win. When I bought the club I wasn’t sure we’d ever play in Europe, let alone win a trophy. It’s a dream come true.” The irony of the captain, Dean Henderson, being handed the trophy by Aleksander Ceferin – the Uefa president on whose watch Palace were demoted from the Europa League after winning the FA Cup last year – was not lost on Parish or the thousands of fans who made the trip from south London to Saxony. Last August, Parish described the ruling as “the biggest injustice in the history of football”, and the “Fuck Uefa” chant that references John Textor, their former co-owner, and the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, became the soundtrack of Palace’s first European campaign. …