Palace v Sheffield United

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

Saturday brings what should be another tough game against yet another relegated team from the Premiership.

Sheffield United were relegated on the last day when a win against Wigan would have kept them up.

The whole of the Blades' board were brought to their knees with Neil Warnock Syndrome - blaming everybody else for their failures.

The West Ham/Wigan/Sheffield Utd saga seemed to go on for what was an eternity with appeals going here, there and everywhere. But eventually it was confirmed. Sheffield United are relegated and will have to play in the Championship. All of this without the now departed Neil Warnock.

So what do they do? They go and get hold of one of the most sought after managers with the ability to get teams promoted and then consolidated whilst playing attractive football and keeping the defence tight.

Well obviously that's a load of rubbish - they appointed Bryan Robson. To be fair on him, he did manage to keep West Brom up (lucky bastard) and spend a few million quid on 'Boro to keep them in the Prem.

As usual, a Robson defence is leaking goals. This could give us the opportunity to kick on from our mid-week point and pick up our first win at home.

They've just brought in Gary Cahill on loan to help their defence a bit tighter.

Team news

Ben Watson is likely to keep his place in midfield after coming through the midweek 1-1 draw with Coventry without any problems with his ankle injury.

Matt Lawrence is fit again and could be in line to relace Danny Butterfield at right-back. Midfielders Mark Kennedy (calf) and Paul Ifill (hamstring) are still on the Eagles' treatment table.

Peter Taylor said: "It’s been a frustrating time for Paul, but we have to be very careful with him. There’s no point rushing him back, because that way we risk losing him for months. He’s an explosive player, so he has to be feeling 100 per cent fit to play."

Sheffield United midfielders Lee Hendrie (knee) and David Carney (hip) are doubtful. Nick Montgomerie is a major doubt after a hernia operation.

Defender Derek Geary is suspended but new loan defender Gary Cahill is set for a place in the starting XI.

Quotes

Robson - "Palace started with a great win this season but since then they have picked one point up from four games so it might be a good time to go there.

"If we can go with a similar performance to the first half at Blackpool we've got a great chance of getting a good result. Hopefully we can cause them a few problems."

Taylor - "When you are in a situation like my own which is under pressure all i can ask is for the players to run around and work as hard as they can and they've done that so I've got no complaints," said Taylor

"You read that he (Chairman Simon Jordan) is in regular contact with Neil Warnock that's obviously not nice to read but I see this patch as a test and I'm ready for a test.

"It was very unfortunate for him (Ben Watson) to get injured against Bristol Rovers and he's a very important player for us this year and i think in the last match it was good that we had him back because the good football revolved around him.

"Ben is a very, very good ball player and he is definitely going to help create things."

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Sheffield United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
11th	6	2	2	2	8

Full league table

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Sheffield United - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	2	1	2	8	7

Full form table

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Our home record v Sheffield United

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
22	9	5	8	28	23

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
30/04/2006	League	Sheffield United	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
05/11/2005	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 3	Sheffield United
07/02/2004	League	Sheffield United	0 - 3	Crystal Palace
26/08/2003	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Sheffield United
05/04/2003	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 2	Sheffield United

All time results

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One to watch

James Beattie

Sheffield United took a £4m gamble on the injury prone James Beattie. That gamble seems to have gone in favour of the Blades so far, what with his 6 goals in 6 games.

There was no doubt that Beattie would add a touch of class at this level. We very nearly captured his class when Southampton threatened to sell him to Palace if he didn't start scoring. The treat worked - he knocked in twelve goals for Southampton that season.

BT has the build of a targetman but is a great finisher. He can poach or dictate play from the front. He's decent in the air but better on the ground and can be the scorer of fantastic goals.

Ref watch

K A Friend

Last meeting

Sheffield United 1-0 Palace

Sunday April 30 2006

Sheffield United: Kenny, Short (Lucketti, 77), Morgan, Kozluk, Unsworth (Deane, 84), Jagielka, Tonge, Gillespie, Armstrong, Shipperley (Akinbiyi, 59), Webber

Subs not used: Ifill, Geary

Bookings: Unsworth

Goals: Morgan 81

Palace: Kiraly, Ward (Hudson, 76), Popovic, Borrowdale, Fitz Hall (Butterfield, 58), McAnuff, Watson, Soares, Reich, Freedman (Macken, 66), Morrison

Subs not used: Leigertwood, Speroni

Bookings: Butterfield, Popovic

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