Connor Wickham: FA Cup semi-final goal for Crystal Palace is the highlight of my playing career

Connor Wickham scored the goal that took Crystal Palace to their first FA Cup final in 26 years – and the striker says it is the highlight of his career.

Wickham headed home Pape Souare’s cross to secure a 2-1 semi-final victory over Watford at Wembley in April 2016.

He joined the Eagles from Sunderland for an undisclosed fee the summer before.

Wickham suffered an ACL knee injury in  November 2016 – his foot caught in the turf as he tried to tackle Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson – which sidelined him for nearly two years.

“I loved it at Palace,” Wickham, now on a short-term deal at Charlton, told the South London Press this week. “I felt like it was a club where everyone, from the chairman to every single person down, was just integral to the club.

“They were good with your family. Everything else around football made you go into that place a lot easier.

“I can’t speak highly enough of my time at Palace. If I speak to anyone outside of football, I say exactly the same thing.

“I had my first season when we got to the FA Cup final and I scored two at West Brom and Sunderland. It was the Swansea game, the week after, where I got my injury.

“My performances were going in one direction. I was getting goals in the Premier League. I was flying, really. To have it all ripped away was pretty gutting.”

Wickham was capped 21 times by England at U21 level with injuries  limiting him to 120 Premier League appearances.

Asked if he reflected on the impact that injuries impacted on his ability to realise his potential, Wickham said: “I could do that throughout my whole career. I have had options to go to different places when I was 18 – I could have maybe gone anywhere. Hindsight is a wonderful thing – but you have to make decisions in the moment. Football is an industry where you can move 200 miles overnight.

“My knee was a massive factor in how it ended at Palace and that was pretty hard to take – it did affect me a lot. It’s just one of those things I have to move on from. I can’t keep hold of it and let it burn inside me, even though it does.”

Wickham felt he was at fault in the lead up to Troy Deeney’s equaliser in the FA Cup tie against the Hornets.

He said: “I could have maybe cleared the header. In my head, I was thinking: ‘I need to make up for it.’ My goal was probably the best moment in my career.

“When that ball went in, that’s the only time in football where I haven’t been able to hear myself think. No matter how loud the crowd is, you can usually hear yourself talking – but I couldn’t hear anything. Players were screaming in the little huddle we were in afterwards, but it was completely drowned out by the crowd.”

Palace lost 2-1 to Manchester United after extra-time in the FA Cup final.

Jason Puncheon put the South Londoners in front after 78 minutes. Wickham put the ball in the net in the 17th minute but referee Mark Clattenburg disallowed the goal after failing to play the advantage – instead penalising United defender Chris Smalling for a foul.

“When you look back at it, it was obviously a huge factor in that game,” said Wickham.

“If he had just held his whistle for another second, we could have won the FA Cup.

“It’s football. You have to make decisions in the moment and the ref has to make a decision in a split second. If he didn’t, we would have won the FA Cup.”

PICTURE: PA