Palace v Coventry City

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Adam Barrett

Team news

Darren Ambrose and Adam Barrett will undergo late fitness tests ahead of the match with Coventry after picking up knocks in the midweek win over Watford.

Midfielder Ambrose's knee is troubling him and centre-back Barrett suffered slight concussion. Claude Davis will step in if Barrett is unfit.

Sean Scannell and Lee Hills (both knee) are still sidelined. Defenders Anthony Gardner (groin) and Julian Bennett plus keeper Lewis Price (both back) are out.

Coventry midfielder Sammy Clingan is out due to a knee injury sustained against Nottingham Forest. Defender Ben Turner is also sidelined with a knee injury, but Clive Platt has recovered from a groin strain.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"I've spoken with the players about the importance of remaining calm in our situation, but when they cross that white line the responsibility switches to them.

"The win [over Watford] should help of course. Perhaps this result was what was needed to restore our confidence and self belief. It will certainly help.

"But the most important thing now is to make sure we build on it. We have had these false dawns before and if we are to get out of trouble what we need to do is build some momentum and put a string of results together.

"It's not easy in this division. The competitive nature of the Championship virtually ensures there are no easy games but I have seen enough in the squad in training in recent weeks to suggest that we can do it.

"We have key players - like Neil Danns and Darren Ambrose - returning to form and fitness. That obviously helps. It's important to remember that a lot of our squad are either very young or not used to playing at this level.

"A lot has been made of the performances of Alex Marrow since his arrival at the club and I think he has done great, but he is a case in point. Alex is still very inexperienced, he was playing non-league football until a couple of years ago."

Aidy Boothroyd

"I think we are getting them at a dangerous time because of their win over Watford. They have got some good players in the team and their position in the league is probably a false one.

"George Burley has been at the top end of the table several times with the clubs he has had before so it will be a very difficult game.

"But if we want to be successful we have got to go to places like Crystal Palace and put on a good show and give our fans something to talk and shout about."

Darren Ambrose

"[After the Watford win] We said in the dressing room afterwards not to get carried away. It was such a big win for us to get after a lot of defeats and now we need to kick on with another home game.

"The crowd were fantastic again on Tuesday and stuck with us even when we went 2-1 down. You could understand if they got on our backs but they haven't and have been fantastic and we need to show another performance like that - the commitment and desire once we were 2-1 down was fantastic.

"It was such a good attitude to go again after so many defeats. People would have said it would have been easy to put your heads down and them to turn us over three or four but we didn't do that.

"We have such a good spirit among the lads and we show it in training every day. I think luck has just turned our way and we have to kick on from here really."

Coventry City - league stats

Full league table

Coventry City - current form

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
20/02/2010	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Coventry City
21/11/2009	League	Coventry City	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
07/04/2009	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Coventry City
08/11/2008	League	Coventry City	0 - 2	Crystal Palace
26/12/2007	League	Coventry City	0 - 2	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 0-1 Coventry City

Saturday February 20 2010

Palace: Speroni, Hill, Davis, Lawrence, Ertl, Clyne, Ambrose, Carle (Andrew, 87), Derry, Lee, Scannell (Djilali, 67)

Subs not used: Butterfield, Hills, Comley, N'Diaye, Mann

Coventry City: Westwood, Cranie, McPake, Wood, Wright, Clingan, McIndoe (Bell, 72), Baker, Gunnarsson, Stead, Morrison (Deegan, 89)

Subs not used: Eastwood, Barnett, Konstantopoulos, Sears, Grandison

Goals: Bell 85

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