John Murray: That team was capable of challenging for the league

Macclesfield FC have knocked the holders Crystal Palace out of the third round of the FA cup. It’s good to see that ‘typical’ Palace are well and truly back to the old ways after the highs of last season.

It also removes any doubt that the ‘magic of the cup’ was dwindling out. With 117 league places between the two teams, it is statistically the biggest giant-killing in history. The last non-league team to knock out the holders? Crystal Palace in 1909, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers. Weird.

I could rant about the disastrous performance that was seen from Palace, but ultimately, it’s been covered in great detail already, and the focus really should be on the brilliant performance from Macclesfield.

Instead, this piece features an in-depth chat with BBC Radio 5 Live commentator John Murray, about Crystal Palace winning the FA Cup, not crashing out to 6^th tier opposition.

Let’s put the Macclesfield result far from our minds, to revisit the greatest day in the club’s history.

May 17th, 2025, was the day that changed everything for Crystal Palace Football Club. Not just for the football club, but the community, the fanbase and even the course of football itself.

Prior to the cup final between Palace and Manchester City, the FA Cup had become a slightly dull affair, with the 'magic of the FA cup' dwindling out past the earlier rounds of the competition. 

Since 2014, the only winner outside the typical 'big six' was 2016 Premier League champions Leicester City. Watford made the final in 2018, only to be embarrassed by Palace's future final opponents Man City 6-0. 

There was still the odd giant-killing, with games such as League One Bradford defeating Chelsea 2-4 away at Stamford Bridge in 2015, League Two side Newport County dumping out topflight Leicester City in 2019, and Crawley Town of League Two knocking out Premier League outfit Leeds United 3-0 in 2021. (There is now a new addition to this list, which we have already touched on …)

For Palace, it was still a rather sore topic, after our gruelling extra-time 2-1 defeat in the 2016 final against Manchester United. Many at that game saw that as our last chance at silverware. The big teams were only getting better, as were their seemingly endless budgets. It felt our time had come and gone. 

After comfortably knocking out Aston Villa in the semi-finals, which I would comfortably say is the best Palace performance I've ever seen, a second trip to Wembley was confirmed, for a third FA cup final in Crystal Palace’s history.

“I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if they had been able to keep that team together and add to it. I do believe that that team was capable of challenging for the league”.

John Murray was commentating for BBC Radio 5 Live the day of the final. Murray started his radio career at a Teesside independent radio station (TFM), where he worked for five years, before moving to the BBC in 1994.

John Murray interviewing England manager Thomas Touchel (Image: John Murray via X)

We meet at a hotel in north London, as John is commentating on the Arsenal v Crystal Palace Carabao Cup tie that same evening - the less said about that the better.

 A long-standing football fan, and fan of the FA Cup, Murray shared his earliest memories of the competition.

“The FA Cup final was the first football match I remember watching. It was the 1973 Cup final between Sunderland and Leeds, with a famous Jim Montgomery save. At that time there were relatively few football matches that were live on television, which continued into the 80s, so it was matches like that and occasions like that that really sparked my

imagination.

“There would be things like ‘FA Cup Final – It’s a knockout’, or ‘Fa Cup Final Question of Sport, so there was that variety. It almost felt like a variety performance around the cup final, which drew me in. Therefore, I’ve got a real affinity with the FA Cup because of those early memories. When it was cup final day, that was it, it was the centrepiece of the day. So, because of that history it has always meant a lot to me to cover matches in the FA Cup and still does”.

Murray touched on how cup upsets keep the FA Cup alive.

“Commentating on cup shocks really resonated with me, and I started to get sent to matches that had the possibility of being giant killings. We went to Burton Albion against Manchester United, last season Spurs against Tamworth, and Kidderminster against West Ham a few years ago. They are brilliant days. I commentated on Shrewsbury knocking out Everton. Commentating on it I was young enough to think, this is incredible.”

Speaking to Murray, his passion for football shines through when he speaks, which is why he has been such a successful commentator. Murray’s first gig commentating in a Cup final came in 2010, between Chelsea and Portsmouth.

“My predecessor Alan Green had to pull out, so I got the call to do the cup final with two or three days’ notice. It wasn’t a great final, Chelsea won 1-0. Before that, I’d had opportunities to go to an FA Cup final but had always wanted to leave it for when I was commentating on one. So, it was quite exciting as it was a little bit later in my career, to go and see a live cup final in its modern face”.

Murray had been following Palace’s cup run with an interest. He gave his view on what he was thinking going into the final.

“I’d seen them [Palace] in the quarter-final and in the semi-final. It was a good win at Fulham, when I actually thought Fulham might do what Palace did. In recent years I felt it was coming for Fulham. It was a massive, missed opportunity for Fulham, but to Palace’s advantage.

“And then clearly Villa were the favourites in the semi-final. And he [Glasner] did such a good job on Villa. That was a manager’s game plan absolutely falling into place. So, when it came to the final, I thought the chances of a game plan falling into place again are pretty slim. Also, when it’s up against Guardiola, who has such a good record in finals, and Manchester City had the season that they’d had.

“But it did happen …”

With Murray having spoken on what the FA Cup has meant to him, we touched on what it felt like being able to commentate on such a historic moment in football. Murray was joined in the gantry by former Palace striker Clinton Morrisson and current Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche.

“It was nice having Sean Dyche who had more of an overview on things. But with Clinton, who’s one of my favourites to work with, because he’s so enthusiastic, but also incredibly sharp and quick, in a way that people perhaps wouldn’t appreciate. Therefore, because it happened with Clinton, I was so pleased for him!”

Was there a moment you felt the game where you felt this was swinging in Palace’s favour?

“I mean they were under pressure early on, weren’t they? Sean Dyche in commentary predicted exactly what was going to happen with the goal, but that was still early on. The handball incident when that happened, then obviously saving the penalty, you’re beginning to get the ingredients that are leading towards what turned out to be the eventual hopeful, and you do get a bit of a feeling.

“There were things that happened in the match where you feel like it is a classic, it feels like their day. It just had that about it.

“I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if they had been able to keep that team together and add to it. I do believe that that team was capable of challenging for the league”.

At the full-time whistle, thousands of Palace fans in the stadium, and thousands more at home unleashed an outpour of raw emotion for the gargantuan achievement the club had just achieved. Murray spoke on how you have to compose yourself and not get sucked in by what is happening around you and commentate for the people at home.

“This is what we missed during COVID, when we were covering games in empty stadiums. You’re sitting in empty grounds commentating, and it’s a very odd feeling. “You don’t appreciate the energy that you get and the emotion there is from a football crowd, you really take that for granted. As a commentator you’re trying to tap into the crowd, so when you see that level of joy, you can’t avoid it. You know what it means, even though I have no connection to Crystal Palace whatsoever, but you understand what it means.

“You have to find the balance of making sure the people that aren’t there know what we’ve got here. You can’t lose control, otherwise it’s just noise. You have to try and encapsulate what it is happening in front of you, by using the words you can. I’ll get things ready [to say] but it’s got to be an off the cuff piece of broadcasting."

One Palace fan related so much to the words Murray said at full-time, that they tattooed them onto their leg.

“It gives you that job satisfaction and makes a connection with the club. I said before I have no connection with the club, but now I feel I do! The club have also put my words on the wall in the press room. I hadn’t really clocked the impact it had, until I saw that, so it is nice, yes”.

This season, the harsh reality has set in of how hard it is to relpicate such heights. We are currently in limbo with who will remain at the club after the January window, and Glasner has confirmed his departure for the summer. There has been a large amount of understandable frustrations surrounding the current situation at the club. I wanted this piece to remind us that we were able to be a part of something extremely special and potentially a once in a lifetime experience.

The memories and experiences for the thousands of fans in and around south London will live on forever. It’s thanks to people like John, who make these precious moments that little bit more special.