'For it to go in was unbelievable' – Voices of Wembley: David Hopkin

Today, we hear from a former Palace captain who famously curled in one of the most famous goals of the club’s history at Wembley – the one and only David Hopkin...

Hopkin joined the club in the 1995/96 season from Chelsea, with the side in the First Division and looking to regain a place in the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Describing his journey to SE25, Hopkin said: “I had signed for Chelsea in 1992 and I'd played a few games, but I was in and out of the team.

“I'd played, I think, about 50 games all in at Chelsea, I was just getting used to living in London after coming down from Greenock Morton.

“Peter Nicholas, who was at Chelsea as a youth team coach, had moved to Crystal Palace and then me and my agent, Phil Morrison, got a phone call to go and meet Steve Coppell and Ron Noades at the airport hotel.

“And when I went to speak to both of them, I made up my mind within five minutes that I wanted to join the club.”

Join he did – and he didn’t look back.

In his first season the midfielder managed to net 12 goals in all competitions to help the side to a third-place finish in 1995/96.

This assured them of a place in the play-offs, and the Eagles made it all the way to Wembley – but agonisingly lost out in the final minute of extra-time to Leicester City.

“It was fantastic when I signed,” Hopkin smiled.

“There was Ray Lewington, Peter Nicholas, Steve Kember... Vic Bettinelli was the goalie coach and, to be fair, it was a great club. It's always been the same. I think it's never lost that family identity.

“I don't think you'll get very far if you're trying to find an ex-player who'll speak ill of the club. It's been a fantastic club for everybody, for their careers. And at that time, obviously they'd been relegated. They'd sold a good core of the squad, but to be fair to Steve Coppell and Ron Noades, they went into the lower leagues, bought the best players who are available, and developed them.

“We had a great core of players at time. They'd signed myself, Dougie Freedman, Neil Shipperley, Marc Edworthy, Andy Roberts... and the club also had a core of fantastic young players coming through.

“Rob Quinn, Clint Morrison, Hayden Mullins, Dean Gordon, Bruce Dyer – they were all coming up. Leon McKenzie, Danny Boxall, Steven Thompson as well... the club's always that kind of mixture of bringing players in to supplement the kids they had.

“And then we had a fantastic second season with Andy Linighan, David Tuttle, Carl Veart coming in. Ray Houghton was a fantastic signing too. With all these players, what they'd done was just get a whole team structure.

“We just kept going that following season, after losing out to Leicester the season before. Great, great memories, and probably the best time that I've enjoyed in football.”

In that second season, the 1996/97 campaign, Palace finished sixth overall, getting into the play-offs once more.

What followed was a close-fought semi-final against Wolverhampton Wanderers, where Hopkin scored a crucial goal to see the Eagles through on aggregate at Molineux.

“Dougie, who was my roommate at the time, played a massive part in the first leg when he came on. At the time we were drawing 1-1, but he came on and scored two fantastic goals.

“Then we had to go to Molineux, and you have to remember how much money they'd spent, the squad they had. They were favourites and we went behind quite early. And then I managed to score.

“People always ask me about the goal at Wembley and I say, ‘yeah, it was great,’ but I think the one at Molineux was arguably more important because that was the one that took us through to the final in the first place!

“I think that's always been in the club's DNA: to upset the odds when we’re not favourites. That's how it has always been. The fans have been absolutely fantastic with every team that's been through the generations.”

Going into the play-off final at Wembley, for the second consecutive season, Palace were once again battling against the odds, lining up against a strong Sheffield United team.

Despite that, however, a chance at redemption was on the cards, after the previous season's defeat, which was on the mind of Hopkin and some of the players.

“We'd played Sheffield United twice in the league and they'd beaten us both times, but going into the Wembley game, nothing changed, we were all relaxed.

"We were there the year before, we'd all seen disappointment, but now we had staff behind us who were all fantastic and just relaxed.

“When we were coming out of the tunnel, you looked across and saw the Sheffield United team who were fully experienced players, with some players they had bought from the Premier League. I think we were all younger than them!

“I could see they looked nervous coming out of the tunnel, but we just went out. It felt like it was 90-odd degrees! It was really, really warm.

“As soon as we came out of the tunnel, I think there was Oasis playing and we saw the red and blue balloons going up, it was like coming out of a cauldron, but it was fantastic.”

“Great, great memories, the atmosphere was electric the whole time. The season before when we got beat by Leicester, I sat in the dressing room thinking, ‘it's got to happen again, if I ever get a chance to come back to Wembley again.’

"When you go to a final, you just have to make sure you win the game.”

The Eagles duly did win the game, and of course it came through one of the most iconic strikes in the club’s history off of Hopkin’s right boot – giving us the iconic line of ‘Hopkin Looking to Curl One’ from commentator Rob Hawthorne.

“It gets played every year when the play-offs are on! I didn't realise how good a goal it was and how hard it was and how difficult a skill it was at the time.

“You're running away from a goal... I managed to get a touch on the ball and turn while I’m getting closed down by a defender and – not even to a step – I just opened my leg and I thought ‘I'm just going to try and curl this in the top corner.’

“For it to go in was unbelievable. I think now, when I look back at the skill level, to go and do that, turn all in one movement and hit a shot like that, right away... it was incredible.

“I don't think people realise how special it was for me, my family and my wife when I was there, so it was great. I'll never forget that, they’re memories that will crop up every year because of the play-offs.”

Special it was indeed, and it was one of Hopkin’s last touches of the ball in red and blue at the time, as he went on to join Leeds United in the following season.

He did return to the club for one more season in 2001/02, but that was by no means the end of his impact in red and blue.

“I do Palace’s recruitment and scouting in Scotland!” he revealed. “I go out and watch games all over Scotland. I've still got a great relationship with Dougie, the Chairman Steve Parish, and obviously Gary Issott at the Academy.

“We speak most weeks about players and recruitment and different things, I’ve been doing it for the past three or so years and I've really enjoyed it.

“Scott Banks was the first one we took down, who came from Dundee United. He's now at St. Pauli in the Bundesliga, which is great for him, fantastic for the club that they've managed to take a player down and develop to now play for a top German side.

“It’s great for the Academy too, and we’ve also brought Dylan Reid from St. Mirren – he was the youngest ever Scottish Premiership player at the time.

“The most recent acquisition is of course Justin Devenny. I went with Dougie, and we have a laugh about it now, but I was saying, ‘Dougie, you need to come and watch this kid!’

“Usually the data team and the analysts and Dougie will ask me to go and watch a player, but I said to him: ‘look, you have to come up!’

“So he's a very good success story coming from Airdrie, playing for the U21s and now he’s part of the first-team plans, which is incredible.”

Devenny himself has scored in the FA Cup run to the Final, away at Doncaster Rovers, and may potentially feature in the matchday squad at Wembley on Saturday – a move facilitated by the work of Hopkin, who also turned his attention to the final.

Giving similar advice to another Wembley goal scoring hero in Kevin Phillips, Hopkin said: “You go into the game and you try to play the game – not the occasion.

“I think the players know this now, with all the experience they’ve got; some have played for England, which has been fantastic. They all did so well in the semi-final too.

“The manager Oliver Glasner has done a fantastic job. He seems a very calming influence on the players, because the squad is so young.

“So I think his message will be: ‘go play the game and try and win it,’ because that's all that matters at the end of it – lifting a trophy.

“It'd be fantastic for the club to lift a major trophy, especially in a game that's going to be shown worldwide.”

Match Details

Crystal Palace v Manchester City

• Saturday, 17th May
• 16:30 BST
• FA Cup Final
• Wembley Stadium
• Live audio commentary on Palace TV+