Crystal Palace reached the 2016 FA Cup final against Manchester United and to this day it’s a loss which was hard to take.
In 2016 under Alan Pardew, Crystal Palace headed to Wembley to take on Manchester United who were managed by Louis van Gaal.
To jog your memory, the game saw Palace take the lead through Jason Puncheon by way of a Joel Ward assist, this left Pardew dancing.
But Juan Mata drew both sides level just three minutes later. The game headed into extra time when Jesse Lingered grabbed the winner.
Palace have felt hard done by though as advantage wasn’t played after Chris Smalling’s 17th-minute foul ruled out Connor Wickham’s goal which could’ve meant the Eagles won the cup which would’ve been a historic moment.
This was Palace’s second FA Cup final having also lost to United in the 1990 final which means this win would’ve been the club’s first.
Now Wickham has shared his view on the situation…
Connor Wickham shares verdict on 2016 FA Cup final moment for Crystal Palace
Speaking with South London Press this week, Wickham was asked about his view of the incident in the final which Mark Clattenburg has long been criticised over.
“When you look back at it, it was obviously a huge factor in that game.” Wickham then continued to explain what he wished Clattenburg had done in this situation.
“If he had just held his whistle for another second, we could have won the FA Cup.
“It’s football. You have to make decisions in the moment and the ref has to make a decision in a split second. If he didn’t, we would have won the FA Cup.”
Where is Connor Wickham now?
Since being released by Palace in 2021, Wickham has bounced around a handful of lower-league sides including Preston, MK Dons, and Cardiff before ending up at his current club Charlton.
Wickham was without a club from July 2023 after Cardiff let him go, right through until last week in March 2024 when Charlton picked him up for free.
Joining a rival club to Palace isn’t something we like to see from a former Palace player, considering he was at the club for six years.
But given his time out and struggles to find a club, we think in this case the move can be justified.
