Hull City v Palace

KC Stadium, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

Survival, push on to mid-table, consider breaking into the play-offs and then build a team for promotion. It's meant to take a good few years for a team to establish themselves in the Championship and then gear themselves up to get into the Premier League. That's just not happening this season at the top of the table.

Hull finished last season fourth from bottom. The loss of Peter Taylor didn't have a great effect at the KC last term. Hull struggled to stay in the Championship. Phil Parkinson didn't last as manager so Phil Brown was brought in.

Brown managed to keep the club in the Championship, brought back Dean Windass, who somehow still manages to knock in 10 or so goals a season and now they're challenging for automatic promotion.

They won't make it. Confidence is one thing but arrogance? I've been reading articles from people up in Hull, the messageboards and even comments from players in the media. There is nothing but arrogance on the Humber.

If they're expecting to win - they won't. We saw that a few years back with Dowie's second play-off challenge. We've seen the reverse this year.

If we go into this game, get the right result and other results go our way, we will all but guarantee a play-off place. Will we get the right result? Will results go our way? Probably not. We're in the driving seat and we never do things easily.

We will go up to Hull, work hard, try and break them down and refuse them time on the ball. With hard work and luck, we've got a chance. With decent support, we've got a chance. With low expectations, we've got a chance.

Windass stated the other night that Hull aren't under any pressure - if they win, they can still challenge for automatic and if they lose, they're in the play-offs at worst. For me, that is a sign of their downfall. We're under no pressure. Our season has already been more successful than any of us could have hoped for back in October. Let's go and enjoy ourselves.

Team news

Frontman James Scowcroft is still missing for the Eagles with a hamstring problem, but has started jogging again.

Right-back Danny Butterfield will start in place of Matt Lawrence who is undergoing a hernia operation.

Neil Danns (groin) and Mark Kennedy (who?) will also miss the trip to the KC Stadium. Winger Paul Ifill should get another bench appearance after scoring at Watford last weekend.

Hull centre half Wayne Brown returns after recovering from his hamstring injury that forced him out of last week's defeat at Sheffield United.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"I don't think I've been as relaxed for years, I'm enjoying it because my team are giving me everything. If the season stopped tomorrow then we would have had a great season.

"We've earned the right to be the team that no-one fancies playing because we are a hard-working side. But I don't get carried away because I'm too long in the tooth.

"All the young lads need looking after, they are all very naive. I remember Phil Jagielka when he was 18 and he was very mature, so it's a different ball game really. But in a way it's great because they play with no fear - they just want to play football. Anyway, Clinton (Morrison) looks after them."

Phil Brown

"All week, my message to our players has been to make sure the promotion issue goes down to the final weekend. To do that, we need a win on Saturday. If we get it, anything can happen in 90 minutes of football next weekend.

"This game sees two of the form teams going head-to-head. Everybody keeps telling me that Palace are the form team and that Sheffield United were the form team last week.

"But given the run we had in March, surely we are a form team as well. Okay, we drew against QPR when everybody expected us to win and we didn't perform in the second half against Sheffield United when they had 10 men. But in between we had a fabulous win at Barnsley.

"Hull City are on the map now and people are doing a little bit more homework on us to try and frustrate us.But we know that if we roll our sleeves up on Saturday and put a shift in, we've got enough quality players to cause Crystal Palace problems.

"I know their system, I know their manager and the way they will play. We have to make sure we're set when they have the ball and it won't be an easy game.

"It's our final home game of the regular season and I think we feel as though we owe the fans one for the thousands that went to Bramall Lane last weekend.

"Both sides are quick going forward, but I don't expect an end-to-end game because I'm not into open games. I want to see what we've aimed for all season and that is 'we play, they don't'. That means we have to be organised defensively and have the right attitude. Attacking-wise, we need to have the right players in the right positions at the right time to cause them problems."

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Hull City - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
3rd	44	20	12	12	72

Full league table

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Hull City - 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 Hull City

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
20	4	6	10	19	37

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
06/10/2007	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Hull City
20/01/2007	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Hull City
30/09/2006	League	Hull City	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
14/01/2006	League	Hull City	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
10/09/2005	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Hull City

All time results

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One to watch

Fraizer Campbell

Fraizer Campbell's main attributes are his pace and determination, as well as his actual goalscoring ability.

Currently on loan from Manchester United, Campbell is one of those players that likes to drop off, turn with the ball and run at defenders. He's not keen on the ball over the top but will obviously go for it if he has a chance.

He has a fantastic goalscoring rate at reserve and youth level with United, and has started to force himself into the first team picture in terms of first team friendlies, domestic cups and of course, Roy Keane's testimonial.

Probable line-up

Morrison
Moses	Watson	Derry	Soares	Sinclair
Hill	Fonte	Hudson	Butterfield
Speroni

Ref watch

R J BOOTH. Assistants: J E Pearce and G S Stretton. Fourth Official: C Evans.

Last meeting

Palace 1-1 Hull City

Saturday October 06 2007

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

Subs not used: Flinders, Lawrence

Goals: Scowcroft 81

Hull City: Myhill, Ricketts, Turner, Brown, Delaney, Garcia, Marney, Livermore, Pedersen, Okocha (Hughes, 13(Featherstone, 83)), Windass (McPhee, 67)

Subs not used: Duke, Doyle

Bookings: Livermore

Goals: Marney 90 (pen)

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