2003–04 Crystal Palace F.C. season

Crystal Palace started the season on the right foot, winning their first three games to top the table, but that was as good as it got under manager Steve Kember and, after a 5–0 defeat at newly promoted Wigan Athletic in November saw the club in 20th place, Kember was sacked (chairman Simon Jordan had previously declared that Kember would have a "job for life" at Palace). Kit Symons stepped up as caretaker until Northern Irishman and former Palace striker Iain Dowie was appointed. Under Dowie, Palace rocketed up the table to reach the play-offs. After beating Sunderland on penalties in the semi-final to reach the Millennium Stadium, they beat West Ham United to regain promotion to the Premiership.

Crucial to Palace's promotion was striker Andy Johnson, who scored 28 times in the league alone. He finished as the First Division's top scorer, and was voted as the club's Player of the Year.

Kit

English company Admiral Sportswear became Palace's kit manufacturers. The new home kit retained the navy shorts worn last season, albeit with a new blue and red striped design along the sides, and the navy socks, which now featured white trim. Palace's traditional blue and red striped shirts were modified with navy trim on the sleeves.

Churchill Insurance remained the kit sponsors for the fourth consecutive season.^[1]

Final league table

Main article: 2003–04 Football League

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1.	Norwich City	46	28	10	8	79	39	+40	94
2.	West Bromwich Albion	46	25	11	10	64	42	+22	86
3.	Sunderland	46	22	13	11	62	45	+17	79
4.	West Ham United	46	19	17	10	67	45	+22	74
5.	Ipswich Town	46	21	10	15	84	72	+12	73
6.	Crystal Palace	46	21	10	15	72	61	+11	73
7.	Wigan Athletic	46	18	17	11	60	45	+15	71
8.	Sheffield United	46	20	11	15	65	56	+9	71
9.	Reading	46	20	10	16	55	57	-2	70
10.	Millwall	46	18	15	13	55	48	+7	69
11.	Stoke City	46	18	12	16	58	55	+3	66
12.	Coventry City	46	17	14	15	67	54	+13	65
13.	Cardiff City	46	17	14	15	68	58	+10	65
14.	Nottingham Forest	46	15	15	16	61	51	+10	60
15.	Preston North End	46	15	14	17	69	71	-2	59
16.	Watford	46	15	12	19	54	68	-14	57
17.	Rotherham United	46	13	15	18	53	61	-8	54
18.	Crewe Alexandra	46	14	11	21	57	66	-9	53
19.	Burnley	46	13	14	19	60	77	-17	53
20.	Derby County	46	13	13	20	53	67	-14	52
21.	Gillingham	46	14	9	23	48	67	-19	51
22.	Walsall	46	13	12	21	45	65	-20	51
23.	Bradford City	46	10	6	30	38	69	-31	36
24.	Wimbledon (later MK Dons)	46	8	5	33	41	89	-48	29

Results

Crystal Palace's score comes first

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

Football League First Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 2003	Burnley	A	3-2	12,976	Freedman (3, 1 pen)
16 August 2003	Watford	H	1-0	15,333	Shipperley
23 August 2003	Wimbledon	A	3-1	6,113	Butterfield, Freedman (pen), Hughes
26 August 2003	Sheffield United	H	1-2	15,466	Johnson
30 August 2003	Millwall	A	1-1	14,425	Watson
13 September 2003	Sunderland	A	1-2	27,324	Johnson
16 September 2003	Bradford City	H	0-1	13,514
20 September 2003	West Bromwich Albion	H	2-2	17,477	Freedman, Johnson
27 September 2003	Norwich City	A	1-2	16,425	Derry
1 October 2003	West Ham United	A	0-3	31,861
4 October 2003	Cardiff City	H	2-1	16,160	Routledge, Shipperley
14 October 2003	Derby County	H	1-1	14,344	Butterfield
18 October 2003	Rotherham United	H	1-1	18,715	Freedman
21 October 2003	Ipswich Town	H	3-4	15,483	Johnson, Freedman (2, 1 pen)
25 October 2003	Gillingham	A	0-1	8,889
1 November 2003	Wigan Athletic	A	0-5	6,796
8 November 2003	Preston North End	H	1-1	14,608	Johnson
22 November 2003	Walsall	A	0-0	6,910
25 November 2003	Stoke City	A	1-0	10,277	Johnson
29 November 2003	Coventry City	H	1-1	14,622	Edwards
6 December 2003	Preston North End	A	1-4	12,836	Derry
9 December 2003	Crewe Alexandra	H	1-3	12,259	Butterfield
13 December 2003	Nottingham Forest	H	1-0	16,935	Johnson
20 December 2003	Reading	A	3-0	12,743	Johnson (2), Routledge
26 December 2003	Millwall	H	0-1	19,737
28 December 2003	Ipswich Town	A	3-1	27,629	Johnson, Gray
10 January 2004	Burnley	H	0-0	15,276
17 January 2004	Watford	A	5-1	15,017	Johnson (2, 1 pen), Routledge, Gray, Freedman
24 January 2004	Bradford City	A	2-1	10,310	Johnson, Shipperley
31 January 2004	Wimbledon	H	3-1	20,552	Johnson (2), Granville
7 February 2004	Sheffield United	A	3-0	23,816	Johnson, Popovic, Shipperley
14 February 2004	Stoke City	H	6-3	16,715	Johnson (3, 2 pens), Hughes, Shipperley, Routledge
21 February 2004	Derby County	A	1-2	21,856	Hughes
28 February 2004	Gillingham	H	1-0	17,485	Butterfield
6 March 2004	Reading	H	2-2	17,853	Freedman, Johnson
13 March 2004	Nottingham Forest	A	2-3	28,306	Shipperley, Granville
20 March 2004	Norwich City	H	1-0	23,798	Routledge
27 March 2004	West Bromwich Albion	A	0-2	24,990
6 April 2004	Rotherham United	A	2-1	6,001	Gray, Shipperley
10 April 2004	Cardiff City	A	2-0	16,656	Johnson, Routledge
12 April 2004	West Ham United	H	1-0	23,977	Freedman
17 April 2004	Wigan Athletic	H	1-1	18,799	Granville
21 April 2004	Sunderland	H	3-0	18,291	Johnson (pen), Shipperley, Freedman
24 April 2004	Crewe Alexandra	A	3-2	8,136	Johnson (3, 1 pen)
1 May 2004	Walsall	H	1-0	21,518	Johnson
9 May 2004	Coventry City	A	1-2	22,195	Freedman

First Division play-offs


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
SF 1st Leg	14 May 2004	Sunderland	H	3-2	25,287	Shipperley, Butterfield, Johnson
SF 2nd Leg	17 May 2004	Sunderland	A	1-2 (won 5-4 on pens)	34,536	Powell
F	29 May 2004	West Ham United	H	1-0	72,523	Shipperley

FA Cup

Main article: 2003–04 FA Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	3 January 2004	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0-3	32,340

League Cup

Main article: 2003–04 Football League Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	12 August 2003	Torquay United	A	1-1 (won 3-1 on pens)	3,366	Freedman
R2	23 September 2003	Doncaster Rovers	H	2-1	4,904	Johnson (2 pens)
R3	28 October 2003	Blackpool	H	3-1	6,010	Johnson (2), Freedman
R4	3 December 2003	Aston Villa	A	0-3	24,258

Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
2	DF	Curtis Fleming^[2]
3	DF	Danny Granville
4	DF	Danny Butterfield
5	DF	Kit Symons^[3]
6	DF	Tony Popovic
8	FW	Andy Johnson
9	FW	Dougie Freedman
10	MF	Shaun Derry
11	FW	Neil Shipperley
12	DF	Jamie Smith
13	GK	Cedric Berthelin
14	MF	Ben Watson
15	MF	Aki Riihilahti
16	MF	Tommy Black

No.	Position	Player
17	MF	Michael Hughes
18	DF	Gary Borrowdale
20	DF	Mark Hudson (on loan from Fulham)
21	MF	Julian Gray
22	MF	Wayne Routledge
23	FW	Gareth Williams^[4]
24	MF	Mikele Leigertwood^[5]
26	MF	Ben Surey
27	GK	Nico Vaesen (on loan from Birmingham City)
28	MF	Tom Soares
29	MF	Gavin Heeroo^[6]
30	GK	Lance Cronin
32	MF	Darren Powell
36	DF	Tariq Nabil

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Matt Clarke (retired)
7	MF	Hayden Mullins (to West Ham United)
19	DF	Rob Edwards (on loan from Aston Villa)

No.		Position	Player
25		GK	Thomas Myhre (on loan from Sunderland)
31		FW	Ade Akinbiyi (to Stoke City)

References

↑ http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Crystal_Palace/Crystal_Palace.htm
↑ Fleming was born in Manchester, England.
↑ Symons was born in Basingstoke, England, but qualified to represent Wales internationally through his father and made his international debut for Wales in February 1992.
↑ Williams was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but also qualified to represent Wales internationally and has represented them at U-21 level.
↑ Leigertwood was born in Enfield, England, but qualified to represent Antigua and Barbuda internationally and made his international debut for Antigua and Barbuda in November 2008.
↑ Heeroo was born in Haringey, England, but qualified to represent Mauritius internationally and made his international debut for Mauritius in 2002.

Crystal Palace Football Club

Club	Crystal Palace F.C. Original 1861 club

History	History Records and Statistics Managers Players

Grounds	Crystal Palace Stadium Herne Hill Velodrome The Nest Selhurst Park

Rivalries	M23 derby South London derby

Subsidiary teams	Crystal Palace Ladies

Crystal Palace F.C. seasons

1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10

1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20

1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30

1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40

1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50

1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60

1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70

1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80

1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90

001990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000

2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10

2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–172017–18 · 2018–19 · 2019–20 0

2003–04 in English football

« 2002–03

2004–05 »

FA competitions

Premier League and
Football League

Football Conference

Football Conference

Lower leagues

European competitions

Related to national team

Club seasons

Premier League	Arsenal Aston Villa Birmingham City Blackburn Rovers Bolton Wanderers Charlton Athletic Chelsea Everton Fulham Leeds United Leicester City Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Middlesbrough Newcastle United Portsmouth Southampton Tottenham Hotspur Wolverhampton Wanderers

First Division	Bradford City Burnley Cardiff City Coventry City Crewe Alexandra Crystal Palace Derby County Gillingham Ipswich Town Millwall Norwich City Nottingham Forest Preston North End Reading Rotherham United Sheffield United Stoke City Sunderland Walsall Watford West Bromwich Albion West Ham United Wigan Athletic Wimbledon

Second Division	Barnsley Blackpool Bournemouth Brentford Brighton & Hove Albion Bristol City Chesterfield Colchester United Grimsby Town Hartlepool United Luton Town Notts County Oldham Athletic Peterborough United Plymouth Argyle Port Vale Queens Park Rangers Rushden & Diamonds Sheffield Wednesday Stockport County Swindon Town Tranmere Rovers Wrexham Wycombe Wanderers

Third Division	Boston United Bristol Rovers Bury Cambridge United Carlisle United Cheltenham Town Darlington Doncaster Rovers Huddersfield Town Hull City Kidderminster Harriers Leyton Orient Lincoln City Macclesfield Town Mansfield Town Northampton Town Oxford United Rochdale Scunthorpe United Southend United Swansea City Torquay United Yeovil Town York City

Non-League	AFC Wimbledon Gateshead Newport County Shrewsbury Town

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