Palace v Stoke City

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Clinton Morrison

Team news

Morrison joins the Eagles in his second spell at the club and hopes to form a prolific partnership with Andy Johnson.

Aki Riihilahti (calf), Danny Granville (knee) and Michael Hughes (leg) could start after making comebacks in Palace's 3-0 Carling Cup win over Walsall in midweek.

Jobi McAnuff and Jon Macken (both hamstring) are unlikely to play, but Dougie Freedman could retain his place on the bench.

Stoke defender John Halls (heel) should be back in the side. Junior returns from a three-game ban and Luke Chadwick Darel Russell and Martin Paterson are all hopeful of a starting line-up.

Stoke City - league stats

Full league table

Stoke City - current form

Full form table

Our home record v Stoke City

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
14/02/2004	League	Crystal Palace	6 - 3	Stoke City
25/11/2003	League	Stoke City	0 - 1	Crystal Palace
26/04/2003	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 0	Stoke City
05/10/2002	League	Stoke City	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
15/04/1997	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Stoke City

All time results

One to watch

John Halls

Listed as a midfielder in some people's books, a defender in others, the versatility of ex-Arsenal trainee, John Halls can't be questioned. Something that could perhaps be under the microscope on Saturday is how he plays against a club who've been trailing him for a year or so...

A talented right sided player who has recently been deployed at right full back by new Stoke boss Johan Boskamp has already found himself on the scoresheet twice this season. This after a 2004-05 campaign that yielded no goals for the 23 year old. His superb ability to strike a ball from distance has seen him win a lot of Stoke fans' hearts...

Interestingly enough - despite his tender age, Halls actually has experience of playing on the continent for Arsenal's Belgian "feeder club", Beveren. In North London, poor old John, like many other products of the Arsenal acadamy, had 'first team' experience limited to appearances in the League Cup and bit-part ones in the league. Whilst at Arsenal, he was loaned out to Colchester where his loan spell lasted only a month making 6 appearances for the U's.

Acting in largely a wide area for the Potters, Halls is a big part of Stoke's attacking play, forever rampaging up and down the wings looking to put in balls to the box to danger-men such as Mamady Sidibe and ex-Palace and linesmans favourite, Bruce Dyer - both of whom make up the Stoke front-line.

To sum up John Halls, he's versatile, right footed, likes a shot from distance too......I'd like to think that this could perhaps be limited, but with a man of Halls' talent, anything's possible.

Probable line-up

	Morrison	Johnson
Kolkka	Watson	Riihilahti	Soares
Granville	Ward	Hall	Boyce
Kiraly

Last meeting

Nationwide League Division 1 - 14/2/04 @ 15:00 Crystal Palace 6-3 Stoke City Johnson 5 Eustace 6 Johnson 9 pen Clark 45 Johnson 33 pen Asaba 83 pen Hughes 45 Shipperley 55 Routledge 90

C Palace: Berthelin ,Butterfield ,Hudson ,Popovic ,Granville ,Routledge ,Riihilahti (Leigertwood ,84 ) ,Hughes (Derry ,84 ) ,Gray ,Johnson (Freedman ,88 ) ,Shipperley Subs not used: Black,Borrowdale,

Stoke: de Goey ,Thomas ,Williams ,Halls ,Hall (Commons ,45 ) ,Russell ,Svard ,Eustace (Noel-Williams ,63 ) ,Clarke ,Akinbiyi ,Asaba Subs not used Hoekstra,Cutler,Wilson,

Bookings Palace: Hughes, Leigertwood Stoke: Clarke, Eustace

Attendance: 16715

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire)

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