Devenny downs Doncaster as Crystal Palace sail through to FA Cup fifth round

With the wind swirling, the rain beating down and an opposition brimming with confidence and roared on by a full house, this had all the hallmarks of a tricky evening in the FA Cup for Crystal Palace.

But it is testament to the turnaround in Palace’s season that Oliver Glasner’s side navigated this test routinely, albeit not without a spirited showing from Doncaster Rovers, who can exit the Cup with their heads held high. Their attention now turns to pushing for promotion from League Two after Palace set up a south London derby with Millwall in the fifth round.

That question was emphatically answered soon after. Hughes produced an inch-perfect through ball that found Devenny, and he scooped the ball over Teddy Sharman-Lowe to double Palace’s advantage and put the tie beyond doubt. It restored control for the visitors just at a time when things were threatening to get wild.

Doncaster didn’t fall away, and they continued to press until the very end. But they must now focus on their endeavours in League Two. “I’m really proud of the players and the performance,” Grant McCann, the Doncaster manager, said. “It was always going to be a difficult game against a very good team. The town can be proud of its players.”

Long before full time, the chants from the travelling support – who had unfurled a banner before kickoff letting the FA know how they felt about this tie being played on a Monday evening – about their local rivals had begun. In just a few weeks, they will renew rivalries for real with an FA Cup quarter-final on the line.

In a year when the tournament already feels wide open given the high-profile casualties in recent weeks, the stakes couldn’t really be much higher.