Dean Henderson has further endeared himself to Crystal Palace fans after putting £1,000 behind the bar of a nearby pub following his heroics in the side’s Community Shield victory over Liverpool.
Palace twice came from behind to force penalties at Wembley, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Ismaila Sarr cancelling out efforts from Liverpool summer signings Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong inside 90 minutes.
Henderson was in imperious form in the resulting shootout, denying both Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott from 12 yards, while Mohamed Salah wildly skied his penalty over the crossbar by a distance.
It fell to Justin Devenny to step up and take the decisive spot-kick – and the 21-year-old midfielder kept his cool to beat Alisson with a thunderous strike to send Palace fans into a frenzy.
The result came less than three months after Oliver Glasner’s men got the better of Manchester City to lift the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history, with Eberechi Eze scoring the only goal on that occasion.
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‘I love the big moments, I love being in that pressure moment,’ Palace goalkeeper Henderson told TNT Sports after the side’s latest triumph.
‘The homework we did on penalties was great
‘They have unbelievable players and have a great team but two trophies in three months is incredible.
‘These emotions are fantastic. With them 2-1 up you think we are out the game.
‘The manager said we would get chances and we did.’
Later that evening, Henderson was pictured enjoying the moment alongside jubilant Palace supporters at The Alsopp Arms in Marylebone, still proudly wearing his winners’ medal.
But it was Henderson’s selfless gesture which quickly went viral on social media, with one fan revealing on X: ‘Dean Henderson just stopped off at The Alsopp Arms and dropped a £1k off at the bar to buy us all a drink. Legend. Totally gets this club. Cheers.’
Another supporter simply tweeted: ‘£1000 behind the bar from hendo…’
A separate post on The Alsopp Arms’ Instagram page read: ‘Lovely seeing you @deanhenderson’.
In the immediate aftermath of Palace’s victory, Glasner heaped praise on his players for shutting out the ‘noise’ amid the club’s ongoing fight to remain in next season’s Europa League.
‘We will accept what happens. Today’s performance we could influence,’ the Palace head coach told reporters.
‘Today’s performance we could influence. I think the players showed it and proved it in an excellent way.
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‘They didn’t think about the noise around us, they were really focused on what they had to do on the pitch. This is why we could win.
‘Tomorrow we have no influence. That means the players will celebrate tonight and we will meet tomorrow for lunch and training in the afternoon. Then we will see if we already know the decision and we will accept it.’
Glasner added: ‘We can’t influence it so we don’t think about it. Tomorrow afternoon we will schedule the rest of August.
‘If we stay in the Conference League, we have five more games to play. If we play in the Europa League, we have three more weeks to train which would be helpful.
‘No influence so I don’t think about it.’