Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish poked fun at Wayne Rooney after the Eagles secured their place in the FA Cup final by defeating Aston Villa at Wembley. Manchester City or Nottingham Forest will lie in wait for Palace after a goal from Eberechi Eze and an Ismaila Sarr brace earned an important victory for Oliver Glasner’s men.
Rooney has previously proven a party spoiler for Palace at the showpiece event and was awarded the Man of the Match award when Manchester United faced off with the Selhurst Park side in the 2016 final. The ex-England international starred in central midfield as part of a team that earned a 2-1 victory following extra time.
Rooney’s record against the Eagles was brought up post-match on Saturday evening and Parish could not resist taking a jibe at the 39-year-old who was working as a pundit for the BBC. When presenter Gary Lineker put to the Palace chief that the club had lost two FA Cup finals and Rooney was culpable in one of them, Parish was quick with his remark.
“I’m glad to see he’s not in the kind of shape as then,” he said to some laughter from Glenn Murray and Micah Richards, before Rooney chirped up. “I’m getting there,” came the reply.
“I remember he was very gracious when he beat us,” Parish then offered as a peace-offering. But Lineker piped up: “It’s always easy when you win.”
Parish was in dreamland following his side’s performance however and also reflected upon what Palace’s stars offered on the pitch at Wembley. “It was superb, wasn’t it?,” he said.
“I thought every man was excellent. The Man of the Match went up and I thought you could have given it to every single one of them.
“We defended excellently and we took our chances. The mental fortitude to get over the penalty miss is a massive thing.
“All credit to the manager and the players. I thought today was a real celebration for fans of two clubs who haven’t won a lot of honours in recent times.
“For us, never. It meant such a lot to both sets of fans. It’s very difficult to win a trophy and get into Europe. We stand on the edge of doing something we have never done before, which is fantastic.”
“I never had any doubt, watching him work, the positivity and the way he his,” Parish added on Glasner. “He loves football, always believes we can win and he instils that in his players.
“All credit to the manager and the players, you can see what it means to them.”
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