Palace began their first top flight campaign in almost a decade by re-signing former youth team product Andy Gray from QPR for £500,000. Gray had been a regular in the Palace first team between 1984 and 1987. The club hit the headlines in November 1989 when they signed Bristol Rovers goalkeeper Nigel Martyn for £1 million – a record fee for a goalkeeper in Britain at that time. Palace's form that season was mixed and they ended up finishing fifteenth after spending most of the first half of the season in the top ten. But it was in the FA Cup that Palace really shone. After a succession of ties against lower division teams (Portsmouth, Huddersfield Town, Rochdale and Cambridge United), Palace reached the semi-finals, drawing the same Liverpool team that had beaten them 9–0 in the league earlier in the season. The tie was played at Villa Park, and saw Liverpool score first to lead 1–0 at half-time. Palace emerged from the interval with more of an attacking intent, and within a minute of the restart equalised through Mark Bright. After going 2–1 up, Palace then found themselves 2–3 down late in the match and were seemingly beaten. However an equaliser by Andy Gray with just two minutes remaining took the tie into extra-time, with the winner scored by Alan Pardew in a thrilling 4–3 victory and for the first time in their history, Palace were in the FA Cup Final.