Crystal Palace Set Up Man Utd Final

 

Crystal Palace will play Manchester United in a repeat of the 1990 FA Cup final after beating Watford 2-1 in Sunday's semi-final at Wembley. Yannick Bolasie headed Palace into an early lead but Troy Deeney levelled the match on 55 minutes.

With the game on a knife edge, Conor Wickham popped up with the winning goal on 61 minutes to send Palace to their first FA Cup final since losing out to United in a replay following a memorable 3-3 draw.  Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew scored the winner for the club in their semi-final win in 1990 and the opening goal, 26 years on, evoked memories of that famous goal against Liverpool.

Yohan Cabaye drove a corner into the unguarded near post area to Damien Delaney, who flicked a looping header towards the back post which was bravely nodded home by the spring-heeled Bolasie. Watford were struggling to deal with the Wembley occasion in the early stages but were almost gifted a way back into the match on 19 minutes. Allan Nyom whipped in a sublime cross from the right that caused panic in Palace's ranks. Scott Dann ducked out of the way of the ball and Joel Ward almost deflected the ball into his own net but it drifted just wide of

A corner from the left was swung right into the edge of the six yard box and Deeney showed brilliant strength to hold off Dann and flick his 11th goal of the season into the net. The Watford end of Wembley were now in full voice, but they were silenced back into their seats just six minutes later. Wickham has failed to set the world alight since joining from Sunderland for £7million but he repaid some of that price tag with this Wembley goal. Pape Souare found half a yard to swing a seemingly mediocre ball into the Watford box. Wickham had pulled onto the diminutive Nathan Ake and he towered above him to skilfully head home from 12 yards.

Watford had only won one of their last nine Premier League matches and confidence looked low as they tried to mount a late rally. Their best chance to fell to Odion Ighalo with eight minutes left but he snatched at a presentable opportunity from a Deeney flick on. Wilfried Zaha should have made the last few minutes more comfortable than they were but he failed to finish off an epic 50 yard run into the Watford box and was similarly wasteful when firing into the side netting from a tight angle.