Ian Holloway has called on his Crystal Palace players to become legends and write themselves into the club’s history books.

The Eagles face Watford in the Championship play-off final at Wembley on Monday knowing victory will mean a place at the round table of English football – the Premier League.

For many it will be the biggest game of their careers but Holloway already knows the joyous feeling promotion can bring, and also the despair, having gone up through the play-offs with Blackpool in 2010 before missing out at the final stage last season.

And he is desperate for his current crop to experience promotion and the wonders of the Premier League.

“Promotion would be another notch in my football bedpost and a magnificent achievement for everybody at Crystal Palace,” he said.

“This group deserve it, they have a great work ethic and I would love them to experience what it feels like being up there in the Premier League.

“That is what we are working toward and we have to try and get one more performance and try and be as good, if not better, than somebody we know is very good.

“I have already seen and already felt what it will mean to Crystal Palace fans, it is a different planet, absolutely off the chart.

“More importantly though Monday is about the performance. My defeat with Blackpool last year filled me with pride in the way we played and that’s what I want this group to do.

“In an ideal world I want them to become Palace legends by winning this game.

“If they don’t do that I want them to be remembered as the group that played brilliantly but, unfortunately, were unlucky and didn’t quite do it.”

Holloway has come in for some stick from Palace fans for the Eagles’ failure to stay in touch with the automatic places the club were in when he took over from Dougie Freedman in November.

But he believes him and his team have finally clicked just when it mattered.

“I am just glad I didn’t completely muck it up and now we are at a fantastic stage where we are starting to get to know each other and they understand what I want and how I wanted to add to what they were doing and not take away from it,” he said

“It is very special this place, ask any player who has ever played for us how they feel about it.

“I am starting to get that vibe as, unfortunately, I never played for this club. So you have to earn your stripes and that is what I am trying to do.

“I know it will be a great game, a fair game, a well-fought game and a purist’s game.

“From my point of view it will be a fantastic final with two good teams.”