Palace v Sunderland

Selhurst Park, Friday 8.00pm

Story so far

After another disastrous Premiership season ending in relegation, Sunderland return to Selhurst Park where their 2004 promotion campaign began to die.

The Mackems were another of the promotion favourites that are underachieving, although they are in a better position than us to make a push for the playoffs.

Sitting in eleventh spot with 23 points, Sunderland could make themselves level on points with the final playoff spot, but their meagre goal difference will keep them out of the top six.

Roy Keane returns to Selhurst Park, but for the first time as a manager. Appointed to give Sunderland a bit of fight and to hone their battling qualities, the former Manchester United captain took on a huge task to get this Sunderland team playing again.

So far, he hasn’t done a bad job in his first managerial position but has he done enough to resurrect their promotion hopes? Unlikely.

Team news

Boss Peter Taylor is likely to stick with the same side that lost at Derby last weekend.

Julian Speroni should keep his place in goal after making his first appearance of the season.

Dougie Freedman (hamstring), Michael Hughes (ankle) and Danny Butterfield (groin) have an outside chance of playing.

Leon Cort (hamstring) could be back for Boxing Day’s game at Southampton.

Sunderland's Kenny Cunningham (knee) and Stephen Wright (ankle) are out. Graham Kavanagh will play through a a knee injury and Nyron Nosworthy should return from an abdominal strain.

Quotes

Peter Taylor "Now it's important that we start a run again and we do need a decent Christmas.

"If we don't have a good Christmas, we might be saying to ourselves that we're not going to get promotion.

"We need a good three or four matches and then we'll know by January 1st where we're going.

"We've got to start better than we did at Derby and we've spoken to the players about that," he added.

"Even if it means you don't play particularly well, you've got to be difficult to play against and that's where we let ourselves down against Derby.

"Everyone upped their pace both on the ball and off the ball in the second half. We've got to do that at kick-off time."

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Sunderland - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
11th	23	10	4	9	34

Full league table

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Sunderland - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	3	2	0	8	5

Full form table

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Our home record v Sunderland

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
18	10	3	5	26	14

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
08/01/2005	FA Cup	Sunderland	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
17/05/2004	League	Sunderland	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
14/05/2004	League	Crystal Palace	3 - 2	Sunderland
21/04/2004	League	Crystal Palace	3 - 0	Sunderland
13/09/2003	League	Sunderland	2 - 1	Crystal Palace

All time results

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One to watch

David Connolly

The Republic of Ireland striker will be a handful for the Palace defence.

Probable line-up

	Kuqi	Morrison
McAnuff	Kennedy	Watson	Soares
Granville	Hudson	Ward	Lawrence
Speroni

Ref watch

L W Probert

Last meeting

Sunderland 2-1 Palace

Saturday January 08 2005

Sunderland: Myhre, Wright, Caldwell, Neill Collins, McCartney, Thornton, Whitehead, Robinson, Welsh (Piper, 75), Elliott (Bridges, 83), Stewart (Brown, 69)

Subs not used: Lynch, Alnwick

Bookings: Neill Collins, Wright

Goals: Welsh 44, Stewart 60(pen)

Palace: Kiraly, Butterfield, Hall, Powell, Granville, Lakis (Soares, 62), Leigertwood, Hughes, Watson (Shipperley, 66), Routledge, Johnson

Subs not used Boyce, Torghelle, Speroni

Bookings: Hughes, Johnson

Goals: Johnson 41

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