On the Day: ‘Hopkin looks to curl one’ vs Sheffield United – News

“Up until that point, the one before it, the Crewe game, had been the best of them, but again it took just one goal to decide the game. So I was getting to the stage where I was mentally preparing for overtime

“I got to that stage of the match, I’m half expecting extra time, then suddenly there’s a corner routine. He turns to the corner, he’s passed Carl Tiler, if I remember correctly, he heads it away and it’s almost like a sixth sense takes over.”

The sixth sense taking over, Hawthorne describes, is the very moment “Hopkin, seek to bend! was spoken; an instinctive moment to cherish both on the field and from the press portal.

“You can see the gap in the goal, you can see what he’s aiming for. It’s obviously a fantastic goal and from the Palace fans’ point of view it’s one they’ll always remember fondly, not just for how great it was, but obviously for what it meant.

“As a commentator, instinct takes over and you just say the first thing that comes into your head as it happens. To be fair to Simon Tracey in the Sheffield United goal, there was nothing he could have done about it – it was just a wonderful, wonderful goal and it was great to be able to comment on it.”