Holders Crystal Palace dumped out of FA Cup by lowest-ranked side in one of greatest upsets ever

Macclesfield staged one of the great all-time FA Cup shocks by knocking out holders Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The National League North side – who are ranked 117 places below their opponents – ran out 2-1 winners over the Premier League side at Moss Rose.

AFP

The Cheshire club, managed by Wayne Rooney’s brother John, opened the scoring just before the interval thanks to a superb header from captain Paul Dawson.

Dawson’s opener led talkSPORT co-commentator Andy Townsend to claim that Macclesfield were on the cusp of one of the competitions’ biggest giant-killing acts.

“What a moment,” Townsend said. “This goal could be one of the biggest in FA Cup history. And it’s fully deserved – Macclesfield have been the better team over the last 20 minutes.”

And incredibly, it got even better when Isaac Buckley-Ricketts’ deft touch from close range extended Macclesfield’s advantage.

Palace pushed for hard in the final stages in an attempt to claw onto the trophy.

And tensions were ramped up when Yeremy Pino fired in a superb free-kick in the final minute to half the deficit.

But despite six minutes of added time, Macclesfield held on to record a famous FA Cup win to dump the holders out as the lowest-ranked side left in the competition.

The final whistle sparked jubilant scenes as fans streamed onto the pitch to celebrate with the players.

talkSPORT commentator Jim Proudfoot said: “You can put up any game in the competition’s history… but none of them are a bigger upset than this. It’s a monumental Cup shock without parallels.”

More to follow…