Indeed, the Glaziers achieved a number of FA Cup firsts that season, 10 years after forming as a club in 1861 . Below, we republish research from historian Peter Manning, who explains why Crystal Palace were instrumental in the competition's founding, and what other landmarks we set in our formative FA Cup years – long before the ultimate landmark we experienced earlier this year...

Following its foundation in 1863, the Football Association was quite a fragile organisation. After the great debate over whose rules should be followed had been settled, the ‘rugby’ clubs had resigned en masse and only the few ‘soccer’ clubs remained, but this was all to change in 1866.

At the FA’s 1866 AGM, John Alcock, one of the association’s early Founding Fathers, retired from the FA and was replaced b

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