Palace v Coventry City

Selhurst Park, Tuesday 7.45pm

Crystal Palace

Team news

Coventry come to Selhurst Park looking for much needed points to help them in their push to get back into the top flight. However, manager Roland Nilsson seems to have already ruled out automatic promotion saying: "The top two places are too far away now and our target has to be a place in the play-offs."

Coventry currently lie in ninth place with a total of 44 points, having lost two and drawn the other of their last three games in the league. Nilsson will be without influential midfielder David Thomson, who is suspended for Tuesday night’s game. Other important absentees will be those of Youssef Chippo, Youssef Safri and Lee Hughes, who will all miss the game through injury.

Nevertheless, the return of Julian Joachim from injury will please the Swede who will have to make the tough decision over who will partner Lee Mills up front.

Mills is hoping Joachim will be in the starting line up against Palace. He said: "I don't want to jump the gun on selection, but if I am fit and Julian seems to be coming into some form and getting over his injury, it should be a good combination for Tuesday."

After seeing Millwall, Charlton and Man Utd all being knocked out of the FA Cup, Palace fans will be hoping to cap off a good footballing weekend with a win against Coventry.

In fact, Palace have a 100% league record in 2002 having so far collected the maximum nine points from the last three games.

To the relief of most Palace fans, Trevor Benjamin has returned to Leicester after Dave Bassett decided not to grant Palace an extra month's extension on his loan contract.

This means Dougie Freedman and Clinton Morrison will start up front, though the arrival of a new striker in time for Tuesday’s game has not been ruled out by Trevor Francis.

Meanwhile, captain Hayden Mullins will play his last game before he is to serve a one-match ban after picking up his fifth yellow card against Gillingham.

Alex Kolinko will almost definitely start in goal after Francis praised the Latvian number one’s recent form at Wednesday’s fans' forum. This will mean that Matt Clarke will once again take his place on the substitute’s bench.

Finally, Trevor Francis will have two main decisions to make ahead of the promotion clash with the Sky Blues: The first one being what formation to play, 4-4-2 or 3-5-2? 4-4-2 is the most likely option as this was probably the key to the 2-0 win over Rotherham.

The second point is who to play between Julian Gray and Jovan Kirovski. Francis seems to have made it clear in recent matches that the two cannot play at the same time, so 45 minutes each seems to be the choice Trevor will once again adopt.

Coventry City - league stats

Full league table

Coventry City - current form

Full form table

Our home record v Coventry City

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
28/11/2001	League	Coventry City	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
28/02/1998	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 3	Coventry City
24/09/1997	League	Coventry City	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
11/02/1995	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 2	Coventry City
02/11/1994	League	Coventry City	1 - 4	Crystal Palace

All time results

One to watch

Marc Edworthy

With the Ginger fool (for want of a better word!) injured, Edworthy is the player to watch, not least because he is my all time favourite Palace player! Having had a tough time when he first moved to the Sky Blues, he has worked his way into the team with a series of outstanding displays and has set up many goals for the Midlands club. With Palace's record of former players playing well against us, he is sure to be a threat!

Last meeting

English Premier

C Palace 0 (0)

Coventry 3 (2) Telfer 1 Moldovan 40 Dublin 77 28-02-1998

C Palace: Miller, Edworthy, Gordon, Roberts, Dyer (Marcus Bent,72), Brolin (McKenzie,79), Rodger (Jansen,45), Smith, Ismael, Hreidarsson, Fullarton Subs not used: Linighan, Nash,

Coventry: Hedman, Breen, Huckerby, Whelan, Dublin, Telfer, Soltvedt (Gavin Strachan,82), Boateng, Hall, Nilsson, Moldovan Subs not used Ogrizovic, Williams, Boland, Haworth

Bookings: Fullarton, Hreidarsson(C Palace) Boateng, Telfer (Coventry)

Attendance: 21810

Referee: D R Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill)

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