Stockport County v Palace

Edgeley Park, Sunday 6.15pm

Stockport Preview

Team news

Palace fans will have extremely good memories of this fixture the last time it came around. In particular the words "Freedman" and "3 minutes to go" seem to immediately spring to mind.

This season it is County who are staring relegation in the face. In fact Stockport are rooted to the bottom of the league with just 12 points, and having lost their last nine games in a row things are not looking good at all.

To make matters worst for the Hatters, their top scorer, Finnish International Shefki Kuqi, is in the process of being sold to fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of £1,000,000.

The misery continues for Stockport fans as captain Mike Flynn is on the verge of being transfer listed after playing for the reserve team on Wednesday. Meanwhile Leo Roget and Karim Fradin have also been transfer listed.

However it’s not all bad news for County. Player-manager Carlton Palmer will be delighted to welcome back goalkeeper Lee Jones to the starting line up.

Jones has missed the last three games where County have conceded no fewer than 12 goals.

Trevor Francis will attempt to make it two league wins in a row, following the 2-1 victory at Bradford last year.

Francis will have a much larger squad to chose from compared to that which faced Newcastle in the FA Cup last Saturday.

On loan striker Trevor Benjamin should partner Clinton Morrison up front after being cup tied for the trip to the north-east.

Meanwhile Dougie Freedman will take his place on the bench having just recovered from a hamstring injury.

Gregg Berhalter will be looking to be in the starting line up after deciding not to play for the USA in the CONCAF Gold Cup which takes place throughout the whole of January.

The American International said: "I don't want to do anything to harm Crystal Palace and I stand by their decision."

However Berhalter could find himself warming the bench if Francis chooses to stick to his preferred back three of Tony Popovic, Hayden Mullins and Kit Symons.

Danny Graville will make his league debut at left wing-back while new signing Curtis Fleming will also debut at right wing-back.

If Granville is preferred to play on the left either Jovan Kirovski or Julian Gray will play behind the front two while the other should be relegated to the bench.

However with Trevor Francis still experimenting it’s nearly impossible to make any definite predictions about Sunday’s starting XI.

Stockport Travel Guide:Click here

Stockport County - league stats

Full league table

Stockport County - current form

Full form table

Our away record v Stockport County

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
18/08/2001	League	Crystal Palace	4 - 1	Stockport County
06/05/2001	League	Stockport County	0 - 1	Crystal Palace
25/11/2000	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 2	Stockport County
08/04/2000	League	Crystal Palace	3 - 3	Stockport County
03/01/2000	League	Stockport County	1 - 2	Crystal Palace

All time results

One to watch

Carlton Palmer

The imminent depature of Stefan Kuqi makes the new Stockport manager the man to watch. Always in the limelight, the former Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday man is cutting his teeth with rock bottom county but has enough drive and experience to make a difference.

Last meeting

English Division 1

Stockport 0 (0)

C Palace 1 (0) Freedman 87 06-05-2001

Stockport: Jones, Gibb, Flynn, Clare, Woodthorpe, Smith (Roget,65), Fradin, Kuqi, Clark, Wilbraham, Hurst(Nicholson,54) Subs not used: Bryngelsson, Briggs, Maxwell,

C Palace: Kolinko, Austin, Mullins, Berhalter, Smith, Thomson (Black,77), Carlisle (Hopkin,65), Riihilahti, Forssell, Morrison, Freedman Subs not used: Gregg, Hankin, Steve Evans,

Bookings: None

Attendance: 9782

Referee: A R Leake (Darwen)

Prediction league

0 members have predicted for this game so far.

Make your prediction on this game

Away travel info

Click here