Palace v Plymouth Argyle

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

Plymouth. Bloody Plymouth. I've learned to dislike Plymouth nearly as much as I dislike Luton. It's a grubby little hole where we have the complete inability to play well.

Fortunately, they're coming to Selhurst, we're unbeaten in nine and Neil Warnock has another association with a club that we're playing - he managed rivals Torquay for a few months and the Pilgrims for a couple of years.

Our last 3 results have ended 1-0. We've only managed to win one of them, so don't be surpised to see another 'one goal' game.

Plymouth are having a very decent season so far, with goals coming from all over the pitch - they've picked up good results against Watford and Charlton and they hover just under the playoff zone.

Ian 'soundbite' Holloway decided that he could better himself with a move to Leicester, which saw the return of Paul Sturrock to Home Park. Sturock claims to have unfinished business at Plymouth - hopefully we can put a slight dampener on his plans.

As much as I dislike going to Plymouth, you cannot deny that they are a well run club who are certainly on the up.

They'd just better not be expecting an easy ride after our last game - Idrizaj, Tony Craig, Jeff Hughes and Leon Cort will not be starting, and Danny Butterfield will not be starting on the right wing; Watson and Morrison will not be left on the bench.

Team news

Eagles winger Paul Ifill is still sidelined with achilles and groin troubles which has dogged him for much of the season.

"Paul is still struggling, and now he's feeling his Achilles and groin," said boss Neil Warnock. "It's disappointing for him because he's in the treatment room day-in and day-out."

Midfielder Mark Kennedy (achilles) and Paul Dickov (toe) are missing.

Plymouth manager Paul Sturrock welcomes three of his players back into the squad.

Paul Connolly and Lilian Nalis return from suspension, while on-loan Manchester United winger Lee Martin could start after recovering from a hamstring injury.

Quotes

Neil Warnock "I told our players after our great win over Wednesday, to start focusing on playing Plymouth.

"I said to prepare well for Argyle, who will be our toughest test so far.

"We're on a good run at the moment, but I said make no mistake, Argyle are a very, very good team.

"They are well run and well managed and haven't got to seventh in the table by accident.

"Although we (Palace) are on a decent run, we are far from the finished article just yet.

"But like Argyle, we've got a terrific team spirit and that's carried us over the past few weeks."

"Argyle have sensibly not spent millions in the transfer market and consequently have a close-knit squad.

---

Plymouth Argyle - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
7th	22	9	7	6	34

Full league table

---

Plymouth Argyle - current form

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

Full form table

---

Our home record v Plymouth Argyle

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
21	11	5	5	42	25

---

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
02/10/2007	League	Plymouth Argyle	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
17/03/2007	League	Plymouth Argyle	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
28/10/2006	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Plymouth Argyle
17/12/2005	League	Plymouth Argyle	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
20/08/2005	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 0	Plymouth Argyle

All time results

---

One to watch

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake

Ebanks-Blake has been my one to watch for Plymouth a number of times now.

He's a goalscorer - nothing more really needs to be said. He's powerful, wants the ball, wants to win the ball and will have a go at defences all afternoon.

Ebanks-Blake was picked up for a fantastic price from United a few seasons back. He was dropped for the last game against Watford but impressed Sturock enough in the reserves that he's likely to be given a starting spot.

Péter Halmosi is one of a number of Hungarians giving the Championship a go. He's got pace, a brain and decent crossing ability - we're actually going to see a left winger at Selhurst with a bit of quality to him.

Ref watch

M J Jones

Last meeting

Plymouth Argyle 1-0 Palace

Tuesday October 02 2007

Plymouth Argyle: McCormick, Connolly, Timar, Seip, Hodges, Norris, Gosling (Buzsaky, 72), Nalis, Halmosi, Hayles (Ebanks-Blake, 64), Chadwick (Doumbe, 84)

Subs not used: Fallon, Sawyer

Bookings: Norris

Goals: Halmosi 50

Palace: Speroni, Butterfield (Green, 62), Cort, Hudson, Craig, Soares (Watson, 62), Fletcher, Lawrence, Hughes, Dickov, Idrizaj (Morrison, 46)

Subs not used: Flinders, Fonte

Bookings: Idrizaj

Prediction league

0 members have predicted for this game so far.

Make your prediction on this game

Selhurst pub guide

Click here