All Competitions
Norwich City 43 wins Crystal Palace 46 wins 19 draws
Norwich goals 142 Palace goals 159
Football League
Norwich City 42 wins Crystal Palace 43 wins 17 draws
Norwich goals 139 Palace goals 151 goals
All league games at Norwich
Norwich City 31 wins Crystal Palace 12 wins 8 draws
Norwich goals 91 Palace goals 56
All league games at Palace
Norwich City 11 wins Crystal Palace 31 wins 9 draws
Norwich goals 48 Palace goals 95
Cup Football
Norwich City 1 win Crystal Palace 3 wins 2 draws
Norwich goals 3 Palace goals 8
Out of all opponents, City have only played more games against QPR than the 108 so far with Palace. They were formed in 1905 (just weeks after Norwich had started their professional existence) by workers employed in the construction of The Crystal Palace in London. Another club called Crystal Palace had been around since 1861, taking part in some of the FA Cup competitions, but were they not connected to this new venture, who became adversaries of City in the Southern League up to World War One (matches not included in the above figures) and joined the Football League Division Three with us in 1920-21.
Before that, a FA Cup match had taken place on the 10th of January 1914, a 1st Round game which Crystal Palace won 2-1. But the first league match was on the 11th of September 1920 with the return the following week. Palace won both games 1-0 and won the division at the first attempt, becoming the first ever Third Division champions. A quirky fact here is that both games were played at grounds called The Nest - the first in Rosary Road, Norwich, and the second in Croydon, where Palace played their matches for a few seasons. That the ground was so named had nothing to do with the Crystal Palace nickname of the Eagles, which only came about in more recent times. It was the only time in history that the sides met there because by 1924, Palace had relocated to Selhurst Park.
Palace stayed in Division Two for four seasons before slipping back to the same level as Norwich once more. The first match in this run took place at Norwich on Christmas Day 1925, the Canaries winning 4-3 with a hat-trick from Ernest North and a goal from John Rodgers in front of 9,000 people. The Londoners, by now playing at Selhurst Park, gained revenge on Boxing Day 2-0. As an indication of the comparative sizes of the two clubs at the time, 23,000 people watched the second match. Fixtures continued at this level until 1933 when Norwich won promotion.
Crystal Palace were destined to be stuck at the third level until 1957-58 when they finished 14th and therefore had to take their place in the newly formed Division Four. They were promoted back up in 1960-61, and in 1963-64 secured a place in Division Two for the first time since the mid twenties. The club made it to the top flight of English football for the first time in history when they finished runners up in 1969-70. Since then they have enjoyed 13 seasons in the highest echelons of the game.
Norwich joined them in 1972-73 and the first ever top level game between the clubs was on the 30th of September 1972 with City winning 2-0 at home thanks to Jimmy Bone and Graham Paddon. Ultimately Norwich played a large part in getting Palace relegated. In the penultimate game of the season, 36,688 (the biggest gate of the campaign) packed into Carrow Road to witness City win 2-1. Goals from Colin Suggett and David Stringer were enough to guarantee the Canaries survival and put Palace down. It was a rare victory in a 'must win game' for City - something they have not been particularly good at throughout their history.
During the eighties and the first half of the nineties both clubs had time at top level but relegation as well, together in both 1980-81 and 1994-95. The latter was from the Premier League and the year when four sides went down (the other two being Leicester City and Ipswich, who finished bottom). Both had been founder members of the new competition in 1992-93 but Palace were relegated the first year, before returning at the first attempt, only to go straight back down again. They appeared again in the Premier League in 1997-98, once more for a single season. When Norwich won the last ever Division One in 2003-04, Palace also went up, via the play-offs having finished sixth. Alas their stays were short and yet again the clubs were relegated together after just one season.
Since then Palace have been in the second tier, as have Norwich apart from a single season in League One. The Eagles won both of the meetings in the 2008-09 Championship, 2-1 at Carrow Road and 3-1 at Selhurst Park. In the 2010-11 season at Carrow Road, Grant Holt gave the Canaries the lead just before half time but Palace secured the win with two second half goals. In the return fixture in London, the game finished goalless. In fact, Norwich have won only once in the last thirteen league matches played and have not been victorious at Selhurst Park since 1996. In 2010 Crystal Palace entered administration for the second time in their history, the other being 1998.
The biggest wins in the series are 7-1 (1926), 6-0 (1968) and 5-1 (1998) to Palace, 5-0 to Norwich away from home in 1951 (a Roy Hollis hat-trick and a brace from Les Eyre) and 5-1 at Carrow Road in 1953. Other than the 1914 FA Cup game, the clubs have also met in that competition in 1926, City winning a 1st Round replay 1-0 thanks to Jimmy Banks, and 1933 which Crystal Palace won 3-0. The clubs have never met in the League Cup, but did do so in the 1991 Zenith Data Systems Cup, Palace winning 3-1 on aggregate.
Players with connections to both clubs include Jimmy Bauchop, Andy Linighan and Phil Hoadley.
To see what part Crystal Palace have played in the history of Norwich City Football Club, just pop their name into the search facility in the sidebar.
Most recent games
29 Jan 2011 (Championship) Crystal Palace 0 Norwich City 0
19 Oct 2010 (Championship) Norwich City 1 Crystal Palace 2
26 Dec 2008 (Championship) Crystal Palace 3 Norwich City 1
25 Nov 2008 (Championship) Norwich City 1 Crystal Palace 2
1 Jan 2008 (Championship) Crystal Palace 1 Norwich City 1
15 Sep 2007 (Championship) Norwich City 1 Crystal Palace 0
1 Jan 2007 (Championship) Crystal Palace 3 Norwich City 1
pictured : Andy Linighan, City defender 106 times between 1988-90 and Crystal Palace player ten years later.
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