Ipswich Town v Palace

Portman Road, Sunday 1.15pm

Story so far

Ipswich have had a good a start as Palace, having won one and drawn the other.

They managed a draw away at Plymouth, which most Palace fans would give anything for after our recent couple of seasons at Home Park.

Alan Lee is the man of the moment after scoring four in two games.

Jim Magilton has now spent a year in charge of Town and has them playing to his preferred style of football. He'll be hoping to push on from their midtable position of last season and creap into the playoffs.

Team news

Left-sided midfielder Jeff Hughes, a summer signing from Lincoln, is set to make his Palace debut after recovering from a groin injury.

Club captain Carl Fletcher has overcome his hamstring problem which has ruled him out of this season's matches and goes straight into the side.

England U21 midfielder Ben Watson is sidelined for four weeks with damaged ankle ligaments, while winger Paul Ifill misses out with groin trouble.

James Scowcroft and Shefki Kuqi will both be desperate to score against their former clubs, with Kuqi likely to make do with a bench place.

Quotes

First-team coach Bryan Klug said: "Both teams have made similar starts. Palace are a team we didn't get a point from last season, and we want to put that right.

"They are very similar to us in many ways and probably the most consistent thing about them has been their inconsistency. They are a good team full of attacking and Peter Taylor always gets them playing his way."

Peter Taylor said: "We played them twice last year and had two very good results, but when we played them at home they probably managed to pass the ball better than us but we managed to win the game.

"Jim Magilton is probably the perfect Ipswich manager really because he was such a good midfield player himself, who loved to pass the ball and that's how he gets his teams playing.

"It will never surprise me on Sunday if we see Ipswich Town passing the ball around but hopefully for us, they won't do anything with it!"

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Ipswich Town - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
5th	2	1	1	0	4

Full league table

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Ipswich Town - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
2	1	1	0	5	1

Full form table

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Our away record v Ipswich Town

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
35	11	5	19	48	66

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
03/02/2007	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Ipswich Town
05/08/2006	League	Ipswich Town	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
18/03/2006	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 2	Ipswich Town
26/12/2005	League	Ipswich Town	0 - 2	Crystal Palace
28/12/2003	League	Ipswich Town	1 - 3	Crystal Palace

All time results

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One to watch

Alan Lee

The dirty, cheating, diver is already the Tractor Boys' top scorer and is certain to be rolling around the floor at some point on Sunday.

Heavy winds are predicted in Suffolk so Mr Lee is likely to be on the floor quite regularly - who needs a foul when moving air can take you down?

Ref watch

A P D'Urso

Last meeting

Palace 2-0 Ipswich Town

Saturday February 03 2007

Palace: Kiraly, Lawrence, Hudson, Cort, Butterfield, Ifill, Fletcher, Soares (sent off 75), Kennedy (Watson, 73), Freedman (Borrowdale, 82), Kuqi (Scowcroft, 85)

Subs not used: Speroni, Morrison

Bookings: Soares

Goals: Cort 33, Ifill 51

Ipswich Town: Price, Wright, Wilnis (Bruce, 46), Naylor, Harding, Roberts (O'Callaghan, 60), Garvan, Legwinski, Peters (Haynes, 60), Lee, Walters

Subs not used: Supple, Clarke

Bookings: Lee, O'Callaghan

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