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Tom Prentki at Daily Telegraph |
Fulham (0) 2-2 (1) Crystal Palace
The song which accompanied Fulham's perfunctory lap of honour was Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You. It could hardly have been a more inappropriate soundtrack for the Cottagers' abject season but their supporters were given glimpses of a brighter future on the final day.
Dwight Gayle, fresh from breaking Liverpudlian hearts, added another two goals to his tally and his late free-kick looked to have sent Fulham away into the summer with a whimper. But the 21-year-old Chris David crept off the right touch line in the 93rd minute to curl a wonderful shot into the top left-hand corner to ensure the game finished level.
"For me it was a relief because we played well for 90 minutes," Felix Magath, the Fulham manager, said. "I am sorry for them that we were behind because it was not the result we deserved."
Fulham's earlier equaliser had been scored in equally impressive fashion by the 19-year-old Cauley Woodrow and if Fulham are to secure the swift return to the Premier League that Shahid Khan, the owner, has promised, then their lauded academy products will be an integral part.
"I think it was a sign for everybody that we are hopeful for the future," Magath said. "For me, today was the start of the new season not the end of the last season.
There were too many changes, three managers in one season," the German said of the club's downfall and also confessed his amazement when a number of his new players told him "they couldn't fight" during the relegation run-in.
Having heavily criticised this season's squad, both Magath and Khan have said that the promised return to the Premier League will be achieved with players who "passionately care" for the club while Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner, last week attributed the demise to the removal of Michael Jackson's Thameside statue.
There is to be no re-erection of the King of Pop's tribute but Crystal Palace have their own resurrection man in the form of Tony Pulis and the Eagles' sensational rise sees them end the season in 11th.
"If you'd have said to me we'd be playing at Fulham on the last day and that was the game to give us a chance of staying up, I'd have taken it," Pulis said. "It's remarkable."
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