Palace v Stoke City

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

Stoke are currently in 14th place in the Championship. They beat Coventry on Monday evening with Andy Griffin scoring a spectacular 30 yard effort.

Team news

The Eagles have just two victories from the past 14 matches but under-fire boss Peter Taylor has received a double injury boost.

Frontman Jamie Scowcroft and veteran midfielder Michael Hughes return from hamstring and knee injuries respectively.

Goalkeeper Julian Speroni (ankle) is unavailable but wasn't expected to feature anyway.

Stoke striker Vincent Pericard replaces the suspended Ricardo Fuller. Clint Hill has a leg injury and is doubtful to play.

Quotes

Peter Taylor: "It's a very important game for us and we need a win, a home win,"

"It's going to be a difficult match though, Stoke have added a few new players this season and it will be a hard match.

"But I'm sure we're going to change and we'll get some more luck and we'll be working even harder to change it."

"You have the likes of Chadwick and Hendrie, who are different types of wide players but still very effective," he revealed. "Then there are big strikers like Sidibe who is a very good player and it's either Fuller or Pericard, so there are threats in different areas.

"It's all about us though. You can think about certain things and players from other teams, but it's about how we play on the day and that's the most important thing.

"It's about us being positive and performing to the level that we know we can.

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Stoke City - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
14th	16	5	6	5	21

Full league table

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Stoke City - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	3	0	2	9	4

Full form table

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Our home record v Stoke City

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
21	13	3	5	38	19

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
13/03/2006	League	Stoke City	1 - 3	Crystal Palace
27/08/2005	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Stoke City
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

All time results

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One to watch

Lee Hendrie

With Stoke's top scorer suspended, the main attacking threat will come from the ability of Lee Hendrie.

He was a loan target for Palace but Taylor turned him down as he wouldn't be with us for long enough. Oh, what a mistake he made.

Hendrie, although gnome-like, has enough quality in this division to score goals, assist, tackle and dominate midfield.

He is a complete midfielder who can act as the spine of the team. He has fantastic control, a fantastic shot and holds a great range of passing skills.

He will destroy our fragile midfield and defence.

Ref watch

Iain Williamson Berkshire

Attention will divert to the tunnel area at 2.57pm on Saturday afternoon when Iain Williamson leads Palace and Stoke onto the field. Williamson, a resident of nearby Berkshire, home of Legoland and the Newbury by-pass, will be taking charge of his 13th game of the season at Selhurst Park.

In his fifth season of refereeing, Mr Williamson will be accustomed to the delights of SE25 having already refereed here twice in his career, both in the 2005/06 season. A 3-2 defeat to Premiership new-boys Sheffield United, and a 4-1 trouncing of Northampton in the FA Cup.

On the face of things, Mr Williamson's card pocket appears toaster like, averaging a shade under 4 yellows per game and a zealous taste for sending people for early baths, for which he's done three times already this season. He's also pointed to the penalty spot three times, all of which were duly converted.

Here's to a free-flowing afternoon of total football....

Last meeting

Stoke City 1-3 Palace

Monday March 13 2006

Stoke City: Simonsen, Hoefkens (Buxton, 25), Duberry, Hill, Broomes, Russell, Brammer, Skoko, Gallagher (Sigurdsson, 72), Bangoura, Sidibe

Subs not used: de Goey, Junior, Kopteff

Bookings: Broomes

Goals: Skoko 47

Palace: Kiraly, Boyce, Fitz Hall, Ward, Borrowdale, Riihilahti, Hughes, Watson (Leigertwood, 84), McAnuff (Soares, 87), Morrison, Johnson

Subs not used: Speroni, Freedman, Reich

Goals: Sidibe 30 (og), McAnuff 48, Johnson 58

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