Glenn Murray means a lot to every single Crystal Palace fan.
As someone who had to fight through the stigma of being one of ‘those’ Brighton people for a period of his career, he has without doubt redeemed himself in the famous red and blue and will always be one of us.
Ten ‘Murray Moments’ will follow but what we should all remember is that Gus Poyet, Tony Bloom, the fans and the entire club of Brighton and Hove Albion decided that spending £3.5m and £22k a week on Craig Mackail-Smith was a better option than retaining their top goal scorer.
Leading off in the look back at Glenn’s career is a certain return to a small South Coast Club in September 2011. Palace arrived at the ‘big white elephant’ Stadium upon a river of hate and after going a goal down early, dominated the game until finally Wilfried Zaha brought us level before a late Ambrose goal sent the crowd into raptures.
As the sea of red and blue recovered, Murray took hold of the ball and leathered it into the bottom corner to secure the victory and sparking the immortal words ‘FFS MURRAY’ from one deluded Brighton fan who believed they could defeat us. That night will long remain in the memories of those that were there, and Palace will forever remain be the first team to win a league game at Brighton’s stadium.
Just over two months later, Palace arrived at Old Trafford to face Manchester United in a Carling Cup quarter final. Not to tarnish his reputation, but Glenn is a massive United fan, so after Ambrose smashed a hole in the net from forty yards, Muzza headed one home in injury time to send the 6,000 Palace fans crazy, and carried Palace into the semi final.
Moments three, four and five happened across a crazy three month span in the early 2012/13 season. Palace dominated the division, through five various management combinations. The tide began to turn in a match against Sheffield Wednesday when the team began to show signs of life. Murray began to look a class act and formed partnerships with Zaha, Yannick Bolasie and the rest of the supporting cast that continued late on into the season. A curious refereeing decision turned the tide of the game, when a penalty on Murray was overturned, but firing the winner late on more than made up for that decision.
Murray followed this up against Cardiff City in a comprehensive performance over the then league leaders. We came from an undeserved two goal disadvantage to turn the game around with his first hat-trick in the famous red and blue colours.
Ian Holloway’s first game in November, Palace took on Ipswich Town. We had been threatening to hand out a battering for some time and after leading at half time, a mad thirteen minute spell saw Glenn score two penalties, miss a third and then complete his hat-trick to make it four goals to nil and earn an early rest on the bench with the job done.
As we all know, late in the season, Palace blundered their way into the play-offs where we met our friends from Sussex. A horrible moment in the second half of the first leg where Glenn twisted in the area, tearing his knee ligaments and falling to the ground with a scream of pain.
Carried off on a stretcher, it seemed like our hopes may have gone with him. Departing to the derision and disgusting jeering of the Brighton support fired up Palace, and five minutes after the final whistle went at the Amex, the usually solemn Murray was stood in front of the crowd on crutches waving to the fans who were singing along to the famous Beatles track ‘Let it Be’.
A moment that may never have been topped for us and him … that is until two weeks later. A man sat in the eighteen yard box with a huge smile (a rare thing) on his face holding the play off trophy in his hands. Moments later, while being interviewed live on television, 38,000 fans were serenading our hero to the same song. It still gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.
The man who had fought his way through the divisions to make the Premier League faced a fight to get back to full fitness, and when he finally made his return against West Bromwich Albion, the reaction in the stadium was the loudest of the season so far and brought a tear to the eye. It took a month for Glenn to score his first Premier League goal, and his penalty against Swansea City was never going to miss and secured what could have been a vital point away from home.
Under the lights of Selhurst, magical things happen. With less than twenty minutes to go, Murray entered the field of play at 3-0 down versus Liverpool and provided one of the best assists I have seen to complete the famous ‘Crystanbul’ comeback. His measured chest down to Dwight Gayle sent the crowd into raptures once again.
Our final two moments come after a loan deal away from Selhurst Park when he was ridiculously replaced by an unfit returning striking hero Andy Johnson and a unable Kevin Doyle for four months. Glenn came to national prominence with an all action game away to West Ham United. Two goals, two bookings, a red card and a thorough embarrassment of the West Ham defence carried the team to victory, showing he was more than capable of leading the line in a Premier League team.
Finally, under the lights of Selhurst, the reigning champions Manchester City arrived on the scene. Not only did Glenn Murray score against them, he gave their captain Vincent Kompany, renowned as one of the best centre backs in the world, a torrid time. He caused chaos in the City defence and this may well have been his best performance in a Palace shirt.
Glenn Murray will always be one of my favourite players, and as someone who defended him from the start and through the tough times of his first season, it was great to see him progress each year. It is sad that he has now left for pastures new, but the connection will always remain for us and he will get undoubted respect from all four stands in February when he returns with his new club Bournemouth.
Thanks for everything Glenn. Crystal Palace Legend.
What are your favourite moments from Glenn Murray’s time with Crystal Palace? Get in touch to let us know.
Featured image courtesy of Michael Hulf Photography (Twitter @hulfie).
