Crystal Palace supporters accidentally vandalise their own team coach thinking it belongs to Middlesbrough

A group of the south London club's supporters scored something of an own goal on Saturday

Supporters believed that the coach was owned by their opponents Middlesbrough (Twitter / @onlypassing)

Crystal Palace supporters accidentally vandalised their own coach on Saturday, believing it to belong to their opponents Middlesbrough.

The two relegation-threatened Premier League sides met at Selhurst Park on Saturday in a traditional relegation ‘six-pointer’, with Sam Allardyce’s Palace coming out on top with an important 1-0 victory.

However, on the morning of the game, a group of the South London club’s supporters appeared to score something of an own goal.

The words ‘Crystal Palace FC’ were sprayed onto the side and rear of a coach, which was parked outside a hotel regularly used by teams visiting Selhurst Park.

Dean Waters, Palace’s assistant head groundsman, later revealed that the bus was in fact owned by Palace and the vandals had cost their own club a sum of £40,000.

“£40,000 worth of damage on our coach thinking it was the Boro coach. Nice one! #cpfc,” he tweeted.

Waters has since made his Twitter account private, denying external access to the tweet in question.

A Crystal Palace spokesperson confirmed the story, telling The Sun: “The team bus was covered in graffiti with the words ‘Crystal Palace’ overnight on Friday ahead of the game on Saturday.”

The club also confirmed that they have informed police about the incident.

The win for Allardyce’s side lifted them out of the relegation zone at the expense of Leicester City, who play Liverpool on Monday night.

The second victory of Allardyce’s Palace reign so far came courtesy of Patrick van Aanholt’s first-half strike.