CRYSTAL PALACE and Brighton have long feuded with one another and tensions escalated when they met in the 2013 Championship play-offs.
Palace visited the Amex with the tie level and won the match through Wilfried Zaha scoring twice.
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But the match was marred in controversy after Palace arrived at their dressing room to find excrement smeared on the floor and toilets.
Then Brighton boss Gus Poyet and his opposite number Ian Holloway fumed about the situation as the Seagulls launched an investigation into the incident.
In an email to Brighton employees, Poyet wrote: “For some reason that is still not clear to me, someone during the day had access to the away dressing room and done [sic] something terrible, trying to upset everyone related to Palace.
“To say it in clear English, someone had a ‘poo’ all outside the toilets, over and around the toilets…
“I am angry that someone within this club could endanger our good reputation and stoop so low. Did they imagine that this would affect the Crystal Palace players? Well, possibly it did. It may just have fired them up more.
“Well, someone made a very bad decision and I think it is time to stand up and take responsibility. Not just the culprit but those employees who are supposed to make our stadium safe and secure.”
The truth later came to light and cleared Brighton of accusations they had tried to deliberately disrupt the visitors.
Former Eagles stars Aaron Wilbraham and Paddy McCarthy revealed the culprit to be the Palace bus driver, with the latter saying: “We wouldn’t be in the Premier League if it wasn’t thanks to that driver.”
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Wilbraham told the Undr the Cosh podcast: “We turned up at the stadium and the smell in the changing room, it was like someone had s*** and like it was smeared it all over the shower and toilet areas. It was all over the floor, these brown swirls and the smell…
“Holloway went off his head, we arrived fired up anyway and the fact we think someone’s done this in the dressing room. Everyone was, ‘What the f***?’. The smell was hitting the back of your throat, it was horrible.
“The changing rooms hadn’t really been done yet so there was no toilet roll and he’s s*** himself.
“There’s no one about so he’s used these blue hard paper towels you get to dry your hands and tried to clear it up with a bit of water.
“He’s probably panicking trying to do it quick. He’s not told anyone because he’s thought he’s done a good job of cleaning it up. We’ve walked in a couple of hours later when it’s dried.
“For us and Holloway, we didn’t know anything about this. We were in the dark as only the bus driver knew. I think when it all came out he probably felt bad and consoled in the kit man.”
Palace won promotion to the Premier League after beating Watford 1-0 in the play-off final.
After the game Wilbraham and his team-mates joked about the situation, but Holloway was still not impressed.
The former striker added: “After we won the final, everyone is buzzing and we have the trophy on the bus. The bus driver is there and keeping his head down and we’ve had a few beers.
“I thought, ‘f*** it’ and stood up and just sang, ‘Our bus driver, he s**** where he wants!’ and everyone has gone, ‘He s**** where he wants…!’.
“Holloway didn’t like it and told everyone to shut up. But it must have been bad to not make the toilet in the first place.”
