Roy Hodgson had masterminded another 5-1 win on the road, matching the victory over West Bromwich Albion in December, 2020 – but throughout the club’s history there have been even greater trips.
You have to head back more than a century to find Palace’s first great away win – and still a club record. It was a classic Palace upset, as Edmund Goodman’s plucky side arrived at Goodison Park to take on Everton, a division above them, in an FA Cup encounter. The result was astonishing: the underdogs took the lead inside four minutes and added five more, running out 6-0 winners and leaving Merseyside all smiles.
The result has twice been matched since, first in January, 1935 when Exeter were put to the sword in a Division Three South glamour tie, and later in September, 1987 as Birmingham City suffered the same fate; Mark Bright opened the scoring before Neil Redfearn, Geoff Thomas, Andy Gray and Jim Cannon got in on the act.
Palace have scored six on the road twice more, albeit while conceding at the other end: in 1911 against West Ham – where legendary goalscorer Edwin ‘Ted’ Smith netted a hattrick – at Upton Park, and against Reading in September, 1996, where six different players found the net.
The Leeds result will enter the record books, and rightly so. Now, with Southampton awaiting on the south coast, Hodgson’s men will try to take inspiration from one of the club’s greatest away days and return to south London victorious again.