Wayne Rooney caught a brutal stray from Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish after the Eagles booked their place in the FA Cup final. They will face either Manchester City or Nottingham Forest in next month's Wembley showpiece after goals from Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr saw them beat Aston Villa in the last four.

Eze broke the deadlock after 31 minutes with a powerful curling strike which had Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez clawing at thin air. Jean-Philippe Mateta had the opportunity to double their lead from the penalty spot but his effort cannoned off the left post and away from danger.

A second goal arrived for Palace just moments later, with Sarr smashing the ball into the bottom corner from long range. He added some extra gloss to the scoreline in the dying seconds, bagging his brace to make sure of the result for the south Londoners.

Rooney was on punditry duties for the match and was involved in the post-match analysis on BBC One, where the former England striker was joined by an ecstatic Parish.

Gary Lineker was quick to remind Parish that his team's last appearance in an FA Cup final ended in defeat, with Manchester United winning on that occasion.

Rooney was a member of the Red Devils side that day and was trolled by Parish, who turned to him and said: "I'm glad to see he's not in the kind of shape so he can do it again! I always remember he was very gracious when he beat us."

Parish also waxed lyrical over the performance of the Palace players, who are now just one game away from winning their first major trophy and qualifying for European football next season.

"Superb, wasn't it? I thought they were excellent, every man," said the 59-year-old. "The man of the match went up and I thought you could give it to every single one of them. The defenders were excellent and we took our chances.

"The mental fortitude to get over the penalty miss was a massive thing. All credit to the manager and the players and look what it means to all of them [fans], it's fantastic. I thought it was a real celebration.

"Fans of two clubs who have not won a lot of honours in recent times... well, us, never! It meant such a lot, a day out at Wembley.

"It's very difficult to win a trophy and get into Europe, so we stand on the edge of doing something we've never done before which is fantastic."