Back at Selhurst

Palace stunned everyone by making the play offs in May 2004, what had looked like a season of struggle suddenly took off with the appointment of Iain Dowie as manager, but their stay in the Premiership was just one season and they were relegated for a record fourth time on a dramatic last day of the season.

Clubs are somewhat more sensible these days, even with Simon Jordan in charge, and so Dowie has been in the fortunate position of not having to lose most of his squad. In truth he’s virtually been able to keep it together and add a few more, although Wayne Routledge chose to leave and signed for Spurs at the end of his contract.

More importantly Palace were able to hang on to Andrew Johnson, a player whose goals almost kept them up last season. At the time he was the makeweight in a deal that saw Clinton Morrison sold to Birmingham. They got £3.5 million plus Johnson for Morrison but just three weeks into this season they fought off a number of other clubs to get Morrison back for a knock down £2 million.

This was after Dowie had been able to strengthen his squad further in the summer with the captures of central defender Darren Ward from Millwall, Cardiff midfielder Jobi McAnuff and former Preston striker Jonathan Macken from Manchester City.

The fee for McAnuff was not disclosed but could well have been similar to the £1 million plus deals that were agreed for Ward and Macken – that means Palace were able to strengthen their squad to the tune of £5 million plus during the summer months.

That’s why they were amongst the pre-season favourites and that’s why it was such a shock when they made the start they did. They were surprising losers to Luton on the opening day of the season and won only one point from the first three games.

Things have improved since and they are currently in fifth place in the league with twenty points and they have a game in hand on most clubs. They have even had to play without Johnson recently, he’s been out injured. That was after he had netted six league goals, and that keeps him one in front of Clinton Morrison who has found the net five times since returning from Birmingham.

During the good run they strengthened their squad further with a pay as you play deal for former Derby wide man, German Marco Reich, who we remember giving Michael Duff such a difficult time a year ago in front of the Sky cameras.

He’s featured regularly since and was in the Palace side that suffered a surprise defeat on Tuesday, going down 1-0 at home against bitter rivals Brighton> They will be looking to get back to winning ways against the Clarets.

Click HERE to see all Palace’s results this season.

It looks as though Iain Dowie will have to manage without Johnson for a further week. He made his comeback last Saturday in the 4-1 win at Coventry, coming on as a substitute with just over ten minutes to go.

He was expected to play for longer against Brighton on Tuesday but was left out altogether after he felt some tenderness in the knee during training on Monday. He’s gone back to see the specialist but it looks as though tomorrow will be too early for him no matter what the news is.

Dowie will also be without Mikele Leigertwood, Danny Granville and Tony Popovic who are ruled out with ankle, knee and calf injuries respectively. They are all long term injuries and none of them have featured since August.

The team is likely to be the same one that was beaten by Brighton on Tuesday and that line up was: Gabor Kiraly, Danny Butterfield, Darren Ward, Fitz Hall, Emmerson Boyce, Jobi McAnuff, Tom Soares, Michael Hughes, Marco Reich, Dougie Freedman, Clinton Morrison. Subs: Julian Speroni, Gary Borrowdale, Ben Watson, Wayne Andrews, Jonathan Macken.

Click HERE to see the full Palace squad.

Burnley will have to make one change to the squad with loan striker Karl Bermingham having returned to Manchester City. With Graham Branch not expected to be fit in time that place looks almost certainly to go to Danny Karbassiyoon, who is still to taste first team action for the Clarets.

He was on the bench for the first home game of the season against Sheffield United but not able to be used, but he’s back from the hip injury that ruled him out for weeks and after two reserve team games and a few weeks training is all set to take his place in the squad for the first time.

I don’t envisage any changes to the starting line up, it will almost certainly be the eleven on duty from the start at Leicester on Tuesday and that is:

Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O’Connor, Micah Hyde, John Spicer, Garreth O’Connor, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs: Duane Courtney, Keith Lowe, Chris McCann, Danny Karbassiyoon, Gifton Noel-Williams.

It was January 2004, we seemed to go to Selhurst Park in January most years and it came after a cup win at Mansfield had halted a poor league run of four successive defeats.

The thing I recall most about the game was Burnley playing in grey which, with Palace in similar colours, made it difficult to see who was who. Not as though it mattered in a game that was hardly entertaining.

Things did improve when Glen Little came on as a sub for the dreadful Luke Chadwick, again looking as though he wasn’t interested, but a goal never looked likely.

Palace were only just above us in the league, and looked set to join us in the relegation battle and yet they ended the season winning the play off final.

The teams were,

Crystal Palace: Thomas Myhre, Curtis Fleming (Gary Borrowdale 12), Jamie Smith, Tony Popovic (Tommy Black 73), Danny Granville, Wayne Routledge, Danny Butterfield, Ben Watson, Julian Gray, Andy Johnson, Neil Shipperley (Dougie Freedman 61). Subs not used: Cedric Berthelin, Tom Soares.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, David May, Mark McGregor, Mo Camara, Paul Weller, Richard Chaplow (Graham Branch 79), Tony Grant, Luke Chadwick (Glen Little 52), Robbie Blake, Ian Moore. Subs not used: Dean West, Alan Moore, Joel Pilkington.