During the 1994–95 English football season, Crystal Palace F.C.

Crystal Palace F.C.

Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where they have been based since 1924. The club currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship.Crystal Palace was formed in...

 competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

Crystal Palace returned to the Premiership a year after leaving it, and over the next few months they would experience one of the most unusual seasons in their history. They were the division's lowest scoring team with just 34 goals, but reached the semi-finals of both cup competitions. They also finished fourth from bottom in the Premiership, which – due to the streamlining of the division to 20 clubs – cost them their top flight status, thus giving them the distinction of finishing in the last four of all competitions they'd entered that year. Manager Alan Smith

Alan Smith (manager)

Alan Smith is an English former football manager who began his coaching career as Steve Coppell's assistant at Crystal Palace. When Palace suffered relegation from the Premiership in 1993, Coppell resigned and Smith moved up to the manager's seat...

 was sacked just days afterwards, with Steve Coppell

Steve Coppell

Stephen James "Steve" Coppell is an English former footballer and manager, currently without a club.As a player, he was a highly regarded right winger known for his speed and work rate. He won domestic honours with Manchester United and represented England at the World Cup...

 returning to the manager's seat two years after handing the reins over to his former assistant Smith.

The aftermath of Palace's relegation saw the sale of numerous players including Richard Shaw

Richard Shaw (footballer)

Richard Shaw is an English former professional football player, and currently a coach for Millwall....

, John Salako

John Salako

John Salako is an English former professional football player who played for a variety of clubs and has also represented England at senior level. He was a part of the Crystal Palace team which reached the 1990 FA Cup Final. A severe knee injury sustained against Leeds United in 1991 put him out...

, Chris Armstrong

Chris Armstrong (footballer born 1971)

Christopher Peter "Chris" Armstrong is an English former England B international footballer who has played as a striker for Wrexham , Millwall, Crystal Palace, Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton Wanderers between 1989 and 2005.-Crystal Palace:After short spells with Wrexham and Millwall, Armstrong found...

 and Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate in Crawley, West Sussex is a retired English footballer and ex-manager. He is known as the "Penalty Misser of '96." He served as manager of Middlesbrough from June 2006, until he was dismissed in October 2009...

. A barely recognisable Palace squad would kick off the Endsleigh League Division One

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 campaign with one of the youngest-ever squads to be faced with a challenge for promotion to the Premiership.

Squad

Left club during season