Bolasie wants Wembley redemption for Palace in FA Cup

Yannick Bolasie has revealed his desire to reach the FA Cup final with Crystal Palace is inspired by the heartache he felt at missing their last appearance at Wembley.

Palace earned promotion to the Premier League with a 1-0 victory over Watford at the national stadium in the 2013 Championship play-off final when Bolasie surprisingly remained an unnamed substitute.

The winger returned from a hip injury during Sunday’s 1-0 win at Tottenham when coming on as a second-half substitute and helping them retain the lead that came via Martin Kelly’s first-half goal and earned a quarter-final at Reading.

For all of his pleasure at making his first appearance since December 19, however, Bolasie, who can see Wembley Stadium from his family’s home in Hillingdon Borough, has not forgotten the pain he felt almost three years ago when he remained on the bench, and is determined to pursue that particular ambition given his belief Palace’s poor run is at an end.

“I didn’t get a chance to play at Wembley in the play-offs, that’s one of the things that hurt me the most,” said the winger, 26, who has watched Palace fail to win in the Premier League since his last appearance.

“But it also pushed me on. Hopefully we can make it there.

“It’s always momentum. Beating Spurs – they’re second in the league. It’s definitely a great result for us.

“Hopefully now with that win we’ve turned the corner. Now we look forward to the next game, which is West Brom (in the Premier League). It’s going to be a tough game but I’m confident we can go for the win.

“It’s been difficult at times (being out injured). You get lots of text messages from people that know you, saying ‘What’s going on?’. You don’t really want to talk, you’re almost kind of hibernating. But it’s part of football.

“Now we’re just looking forward to playing the next game and I’m sure everyone’s going to come away confident.

“One hundred per cent (I want to make up for lost time). I think there’s 11 games with the FA Cup, so I’m definitely going to be looking forward to that.”