Preston North End v Palace

Deepdale, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

Preston not only have the best defensive record in the league, but they are also sat in second place on level points with Cardiff.

Preston have only lost one game since August and they also boast an impressive home record in which they're unbeaten at Deepdale.

Palace are certainly the underdogs with Ladbrokes offering 4/1 with an away win.

Team news

Leon Cort will not make the trip after pulling his hamstring in a freak accident at home.

The centre-half will be sidelined for around two weeks and his loss comes as a big blow to Peter Taylor's men.

Michael Hughes picked up a knock on his thigh muscle against Barnsley last week and faces a late fitness test.

Gillingham forward Patrick Agyemang is forced to sit out the game with a calf injury. Danny Dichio is expected to replace him in attack.

Midfielder Tommy Miller - on loan from Sunderland - is pushing for a starting place.

Quotes

"I think the players are very relieved that we got a win and looking at the game, I think we thoroughly deserved it," said Taylor.

"The performance, quality and determination on Saturday was first class.

"After the run of results that we have had, it was extra determination to get back to winning ways."

"They are in good form, but I'm looking forward to it because I think we've had a lift from last Saturday," he added.

"We know player-for-player, I think we are every bit as good as Preston so we'll go up there and try to show it.

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Preston North End - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
2nd	18	10	6	2	36

Full league table

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Preston North End - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	3	1	1	9	4

Full form table

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Our away record v Preston North End

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
16	2	6	8	11	22

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
07/02/2006	FA Cup	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Preston North End
31/01/2006	League	Preston North End	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
28/01/2006	FA Cup	Preston North End	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
24/09/2005	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Preston North End
06/12/2003	League	Preston North End	4 - 1	Crystal Palace

All time results

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One to watch

David Nugent

The Liverpudlian striker started off his professional career with Bury before Billy Davies picked him up for a minuscule fee of just £100,000. Preston could soon be receiving offers stretching up to about £5million if Premiership teams have anything to do with it.

DaNug is a great, all round player with the ability to score goals either from inside or outside of the box, set up others and pick the ball up from deep.

Taylor certainly knows about the pacy forward's technical and goalscoring ability from his time in the England Under 21 squad, so hopefully he's been letting Hudson and Ward know how to defend against him.

Ref watch

Uriah Rennie Sheffield

Discipline will be the order of the day come Saturday afternoon when Palace visit Preston at Deepdale. With the referee, Uriah Rennie, having a black belt in martial arts, anyone caught flouting the rules may well find themselves on the end of a kick in the knackers.

A resident of the Steel City, Rennie is an experienced referee, currently in his tenth season of officiating at the top end of English football. He was never been one to shy away from controversy in his fledgling refereeing years, though has since matured into a reasonably content official.

Saturday will be his 18th match of the season, and his 6th in the Championship. Having averaged a respectable 3 yellow cards per game this season, and having only sent 2 players for early baths (both in the same game, Chester vs. Wrexham) - Uriah will be hoping to blend into the background again to allow football to take centre stage

Last meeting

Palace 1-2 Preston North End

Tuesday February 07 2006

Palace: Kiraly, Ward, Hudson, Boyce, Borrowdale (Andrews, 89), Riihilahti, Watson, Reich (Soares, 88), McAnuff, Johnson, Freedman (Macken, 72)

Subs not used: Speroni, Wilson

Bookings: Hudson

Goals: Ward 26

Preston North End: Nash, Mawene, Mears, Hill, Lucketti, McKenna, Sedgwick, O'Neil (Hibbert, 87), Lewis Neal (Nugent, 74), Agyemang, Dichio

Subs not used: Ward, Davidson, Parillon

Goals: Dichio 35, Dichio 88

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