7 Times Being A Crystal Palace Fan Was Too Stressful

5. Stockport 2001

In 2001, Crystal Palace - despite boasting a forward line that included Mikael Forsell, Clinton Morrison and Dougie Freedman - found themselves third bottom, three points adrift with only two games remaining. In a last ditch attempt to prevent relegation to the third tier, Bald Eagle Alan Smith was fired by perma-tanned Chairman Simon Jordan and replaced by Palace legend and all-round good guy Steve Kember, who was given the responsibility of keeping Palace up. Things were not looking particularly great. Despite the downbeat mood around the club, Palace rallied. In the penultimate game of the season, Kember guided Palace to a 4-2 win over Portsmouth to set up a nail-biting finale against Stockport. Palace had hope. They needed a win to stay up, but also needed Birmingham to not slip up against Huddersfield despite having already secured their place in the Play-Offs. Birmingham kept to their side of the bargain so now it was down to Palace. Would Jordan's decision to change manager two games before the end of the season pay off? In the 87th minute, it looked like the answer was no. That was until a Stockport corner was headed out to the edge of the box where David Hopkin was there to challenge - and clearly handball - before the ball was quickly passed out to Morrison who held the ball up for Freedman to take over. From forty yards out he drove at the Stockport goal, jinking past the last remaining defender before slotting the ball home in front of the delirious travelling faithful to win the game and keep Palace up, cementing his and Kember's name in Palace folklore forever.