City's 15-goal thriller against this year's cup final opponents | OneFootball

Saturday’s FA Cup final will not be the first tie between City and Crystal Palace to go into the history books.

It’s actually the fifth FA Cup meeting between the sides, with the first two encounters played in this competition back in the 1920s.

Having lost 2-0 at Palace in 1921, we hosted the Eagles at Maine Road in February 1926 for a game that still sets the standards for entertainment.

The 15 strikes in our 11-4 fifth round victory means that meeting remains the most goal-laden Manchester City game of all time.

Taking a 7-0 lead into the break, City were perhaps guilty of taking our foot off the gas as Palace netted four to, incredibly, give themselves a fighting chance.

We rallied though and scored another four times to consign our visitors to a seven-goal margin of defeat.

Some of the greatest goalscorers in our history got in on the action, with Frank Roberts netting five.

Tommy Browell also laid a claim for the Man of the Match, scoring three times, with Sam ‘Billy’ Austin, George Hicks and Tommy Johnson adding one each.

Roberts, Browell and Johnson are three of the 19 men to have scored at least 100 times for City, with only Sergio Aguero and Eric Brook scoring more for us than Johnson.

The managerless Blues were in that game being overseen by committee with director Albert Alexander making the final decisions.

It was a season to forget in the league, with City coming 21st out of 22 in Division One having scored 89 goals and conceded 100 in 42 matches.

But the attacking setup appeared to be paying dividends in the cup as we scored a whopping 31 goals in six games to reach that season’s final.

In typical City fashion, the well ran dry in the Wembley showpiece as Bolton Wanderers ran out 1-0 winners.

Just two FA Cup ties between City and Palace have followed in the years since, with the Blues winning 4-0 and 3-0 respectively in 1981 and 2017.

In terms of overall meetings, City have the upper hand – beating Palace 39 times and only suffering defeat on 17 occasions. The two have also shared the spoils 17 times.

The 74th iteration of the fixture will perhaps be the biggest yet, with City aiming for an eighth FA Cup trophy and our third under Pep Guardiola.

We’ll be seeking to extend our record for the length of time between first and most recent triumph in the tournament, with the 119 years from 1904 to 2023 currently the longest such run.

Palace have their own storied past in the world’s oldest club competition, having regularly hosted the final before the first World War.

However, they are perhaps one of the biggest and grandest institutions in English football yet to have claimed the trophy for themselves.

No matter which way the trophy goes on Saturday, few at Wembley will be predicting a 15-goal thriller.

With thanks to historian Dr Gary James (gjfootballarchive.com) for his knowledge and research.