Huddersfield Town v Palace

John Smith's Stadium, Wednesday 7.45pm

Wilfried Zaha

Team news

Winger Wilfried Zaha plays his first game on loan from Manchester United after completing his move to the Premier League giants last week.

Defender Jazz Richards is set to make his Palace debut after joining on loan from Swansea until the end of the season.

Forward Alex Nimely, who is on loan from Manchester City, is sidelined for around three weeks with a hamstring injury sustained against Bolton.

Defensive duo Paddy McCarthy, Joel Ward (both groin) and midfielder OWEN GARVAN (knee) are also missing, while Kagisho Dikgacoi is playing at the African Nations Cup.

Managerless Huddersfield have on-loan players Jermaine Beckford and Neil Danns back after being ineligible to face host club Leicester in Saturday's 1-1 FA Cup draw.

Quotes

Caretaker boss Mark Lillis

“The Championship is the priority for this club for the way we are progressing and is so important for the way Dean Hoyle’s plans for the future of the club are set out. To stay in there is so important.

“From my perspective, the pleasing thing is how the players have reacted to me. You have to get in their faces because I am a big believer in that and in confronting things that are there.

“You have to jump in and it was a matter of getting in amongst the players to see how they handled things and how their body language was.

“I am not frightened to make decisions, but I always tell the players why I have made them. It is up to them if they want to sulk, but they didn’t. (Sean) Scannell wasn’t in the starting line-up on Saturday but he came on and had an impact, which I was pleased about.”

Sean Scannell

“I felt we should have won the game at Selhurst, and now we have a chance to put things right. The fans gave me some stick, but I was okay with that because it meant we were doing something right, and they came round by the end of the game.

“I’ve had a lot of niggling injuries and when you’re not fit your confidence tends to go down as well, but I now feel fresh and back to my normal self. I still think I’ve got a lot more to show. I’d like to score more goals and to really show what I’m made of.

“Everybody says me and Neil Danns look alike. Neil’s a great player. He is very skilful and can score goals from midfield, and it’s great to have him on board.

“In the 10 games before Charlton in the FA Cup we weren’t at our best. But we seem to be coming back into form now. Even though we’ve been on a bad run, the gap between us and the play-offs is not that big.”

Neil Danns

“It’s great to be back and trying to gain a place in the team. My time here so far has been a bit stop-start, but I’m fit and raring to go and hoping to be involved tonight.

“I experienced administration at Palace. We’d just arrived for a midweek game in Newcastle when we found out about losing the points. It turned the season on its head, but we had some great leaders, like Sean Derry, Clint Hill and Alan Lee, and in Neil Warnock, a manager who is one of the biggest characters of them all.

“We had supporters staging protests in central London in a bid to keep the club alive, and we kept battling away so that we went into the final game of the season at Sheffield Wednesday needing a draw, which we achieved (Lee scored in the 2-2 stalemate). We only just avoided relegation, but it almost felt like we had won promotion.”

Huddersfield Town - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
19th	28	8	9	11	33

Full league table

Huddersfield Town - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
8	0	5	3	6	17

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
22/12/2012	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Huddersfield Town
03/04/2001	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 0	Huddersfield Town
26/08/2000	League	Huddersfield Town	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
29/01/2000	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 2	Huddersfield Town
28/08/1999	League	Huddersfield Town	7 - 1	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 1-1 Huddersfield Town

Saturday December 22 2012

Palace: Speroni, Ramage, Ward (Moxey, 53), Delaney, Garvan (Gabbidon, 15), Dikgacoi, Bolasie (Moritz, 82), Jedinak, Parr, Murray, Zaha

Subs not used: Easter, O'Keefe, Appiah, Price

Goals: Zaha (39)

Sent off: Delaney (11)

Huddersfield Town: Smithies, Gerrard, Lynch , Woods, Hunt, Southern, Clayton, Norwood (Hammill, 46), Vaughan (Clarke, 81), Beckford, Scannell (Ward, 71)

Subs not used: Church, Dixon, Bennett, Atkinson

Goals: Southern (75)

Bookings: Woods, Hunt, Lynch

Sent off: Gerrard (80)