Promotion chance is a fairytale for Palace's owners

The Eagles co-owner watched on at Brighton's Amex Stadium on Monday night as a Wilfried Zaha inspired Palace side claimed a 2-0 play-off semi-final win over their fierce rivals and a place in the final at Wembley - where victory will guarantee them a spot at the round table of world football.

For Browett and fellow owners Steve Parish, Martin Long and Jeremy Hosking, the chance for promotion would be a remarkable achievement given the state the club was in when they saved it from liquidation three years ago this month.

"If you had told me three months before we bought the club that one day I would be on the verge of owning a Premier League club, I wouldn't have believed it," he said.

"It still feels the same, I feel just like a football fan. But it's a good story to go from being four fans to becoming owners of a football club on the brink of the Premier League.

"I don't think we imagined it would come so quickly.

"When you think we just avoided relegation in our first season, finished 17th last season and this season were second favourites to get relegated.

"And when you think most of our rivals have billionaire owners or parachutes payments, we are not on a level playing field.

"We have some good players but it is basically players who came on a free transfer or through the youth team. We have put together a team on less money than a lot of our competitors have paid for one player."

The Palace owners have never forgotten their roots as Eagles fans. Instead of going out and celebrating on Monday, Browett drove home and spent two hours talking to fellow supporters on an internet fans' forum.

"I shared a nice bottle of wine with my eldest son and spent about two hours saying thank you to all those saying well done," he added.

"I think we are more in touch with the fans than the owners of many other clubs as we are fans as well.

"People are proud of what we have achieved as we have done it ourselves."