Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has said that Crystal Palace's 1-0 Europa Conference League final victory over Rayo Vallecano proves that "sometimes the good guys win."
The win, which came courtesy of a second-half goal from Jean-Philippe Mateta, confirms the club's qualification for next season's Europa League, one year after Palace were controversially demoted from the competition following a ruling by UEFA's Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) which said that the club was too closely linked to Lyon.
Nottingham Forest were promoted to the Europa League instead and reached the semifinals before being knocked out by eventual winners Aston Villa.
"Even to be in Europe, so good," Parish said of Palace's Conference League glory in a post-match interview with TNT Sports. "Travelling around Europe -- Strasbourg, Krakow -- but then to come and win it, it's just incredible. It's not really sunk in.
"Just an amazing achievement. The players, the staff -- all the ups and downs we've had in the season. It's just brilliant to get to this point.
"Getting to the Europa League, where we deserve, in the end. It just shows you, sometimes the good guys win. That's what I think."
Wednesday night's victory caps a remarkable 12-month period for Oliver Glasner's side.
"Just surviving in the Premier League, as everybody knows, is difficult," Parish continued. "But to win an FA Cup, to win a Community Shield and then to come in Europe and win a European title at the first time of asking is just an incredible achievement from everybody. It means everything.
"When I bought the club, I wasn't sure we'd ever play in Europe, let alone come and win a trophy. So it's absolutely incredible, it's all of our dreams come true, and now we just want to keep it going. We've got a taste of it, we want to keep it going."
Parish will now be tasked with replacing Glasner -- the club's most successful manager ever -- but said on Thursday that Palace's European qualification might help in that regard.
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"I think it makes our life easier in one way and more difficult in another," he told Sky Sports.
"Easier in that I think the managers that we're looking at probably are more encouraged by us playing in Europe. I think that would mean something to [them to] expose themselves in that competition.
"Obviously, it's another 60 games, probably, and we need to be prepared, we know what's involved now.
"We need to try and get ourselves in good shape with the right quality, the right amount of cover, the right manager, and go again and see if we can't win that one."