Greatest Crystal Palace Players Ever – Top 10 Legends
6. Andy Johnson
Andy Johnson has done more than enough to earn his place in this list, impressively averaging one goal every two games, with 85 in 161 appearances.
Having quietly joined the club from Birmingham, AJ spent the next four seasons hammering the goals in, many of which helped the Eagles gain promotion to the Premier League in the 03/04 season, in which he was the Championship’s top scorer.
5. Kenny Sansom
Considered by many fans to be Crystal Palace’s best ever defender. Kenny Sansom started out in the Palace youth team and spent five glorious seasons at Palace before being poached by Arsenal. He also has over 80 caps for England, making his international debut while still a Palace player. He is, without a doubt, one of the greatest Crystal Palace players ever.
4. Ted Smith
Ted Smith was a marvellous goalscorer for Crystal Palace on both sides of the First World War. He was burly and strong, weighing in at 12 and a half stone and standing at five foot nine and a half inches tall. As a header of the ball he was phenomenal and it is amazing how many of his goals came from his head. Ted also possessed an extremely powerful shot
Ted joined Palace from Hull City in December 1911 and immediately scored a hat-trick on his debut against West Ham United and he then repeated the feat a week later against Bristol Rovers. He topped Palace’s scoring charts for the four remaining pre-war seasons and again in 1919/20 and during that period his record was the equal of any in the game.
After the First World War Ted became Palace’s captain and led the team to the inaugural Division Three title before injury prevented him playing in Palace’s first games in Division Two.