Palace bow out of the Premiership on Sunday against Sheffield Wednesday hoping to give their long-suffering fans one last hurrah.

Last week's 5-2 drubbing at the hands of Bolton had all the hallmarks of an end of season capitulation from an already relegated team. Up against a team still desperately fighting for their Premiership survival, Palace caved in in spectacular fashion despite fighting back after conceding early on. They led 2-1 thanks to stunning strikes from Marcus Bent and Dean Gordon but Bolton's need proved decisive and the home side hit back with two goals before the break to lead 3-2.

A miserable second period saw Palace concede a further two and leave coach Brian Sparrow to reflect on what he described as "a very disappointing" performance.

Even after losing their Premiership status, Palace still do not look like they have learnt from their mistakes and continued to demonstrate the schoolboy defending so prevalent throughout the season.

Palace will be hoping Ron Atkinson's Sheffield Wednesday will have nothing like as much fight about them on Sunday. They are already certain of their Premiership status after beating Everton 3-1 and could well blood a few youngsters. Meanwhile Palace know that they are also highly likely to finish rock bottom.

Anything but a win against West Ham last night would have made certain of that dubious honour. And even if they did win last night and do manage to beat the Owls, they would still have to rely on Barnsley losing their final game of the season.

Two victories would also give Palace their first back to back victories for the whole season while a win over Sheffield would also give the Eagles their first double of the season having won 3-1 at Hillsborough.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.