Back to the Crystal Palace Newsfeed

Palace's strongest FA Youth Cup XI over time

The above picture is a stark reminder of the impact Crystal Palace's youth teams have had on the club over the last 50 years.

It shows Jim Cannon and Kenny Sansom amongst others piling onto Dave Swindlehurst moments after he netted Palace's second goal in perhaps their most iconic ever game: the promotion-clincher against Burnley in May 1979.

The trio of players were separated by their ages - with Cannon at 25, Swindlehurst aged 23 and Sansom the youngest at 20 - but all shared a similar background in the Palace Academy. In fact, each of the three earned their first taste of truly testing football in the same competition: the FA Youth Cup.