Clarets face Pardew's Palace

Last updated : 16 January 2015 By Tony Scholes

Crystal Palace are a team we've met quite regularly in the last fifteen years or so, but tomorrow will be the first time they've visited Turf Moor for a top flight game since October 1970. Although it was our 15th league game of the season, the 2-1 win against them was our first win of that 1970/71 season.

Palace had made a brilliant start to their second season in the first division and arrived in fourth place, but two Eric Probert goals, he was our leading scorer that season with a total of five, gave bottom of the league Burnley the points.

It's not a first win of the season we're looking for this time, although a win would give us successive home wins in the Premier League since we beat Sunderland and Birmingham early in the 2009/10 season.

It will be another tough game, absolutely no doubt about that, but this team of ours are playing with much more confidence now. We weren't a pushover at the beginning of the season and we certainly aren't now as those two away draws recently showed.

Midfielder David Jones sees it as just another game, another challenge, another opportunity. He said: "Opportunity is the right word. This is the way we look at every game and there is another big opportunity for us this Saturday.

"With consistent performance, the belief grows and we're going into the game with a lot of belief and a strong mentality that we're going to give a performance that is going to give us the best opportunity to win."

Jones played most of the cup replay at Spurs on Wednesday but has no concerns fitness wise. He added: "We weren't affected by the heavy run of fixtures over Christmas, even with a relatively small squad and not making many changes game by game.

"The manager and the staff think about all the details and what is best for preparation through their experience. There are ways to recover and prepare, which is what we do."

Jones was replaced by Dean Marney with around quarter of an hour to go at White Hart Lane; Marney was on the bench with the likes of George Boyd, Danny Ings and Ashley Barnes.

I would expect all four of them to return tomorrow with Sean Dyche likely to name as close as possible the same team that has played in the last seven league games.

We have two injury doubts. Jason Shackell has missed both cup games but played in the QPR win last Saturday. The news on him looks positive although not quite so positive regarding Kieran Trippier who came off on Wednesday with a tight hamstring.

Trippier is being assessed and Dyche said: "Kieran's hamstring went tight in the game but we're hopeful on that."

There are options should he not make it. Either of Steven Reid or Luke O'Neill could come in or, alternatively, Michael Keane could move to right back with Michael Duff slotting back in alongside the hopefully fit Shackell in the centre.

We're going into the game with a lot of belief says David Jones

However, if everyone is fit, I expect the team to be: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Luke O'Neill, Michael Duff, Danny Lafferty, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Marvin Sordell, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Sam Vokes.

Palace kicked off the 2014/15 season without a manager following the departure of Tony Pulis who has recently pitched up at West Brom. Keith Millen was put in temporary charge and there was some much publicised chase of managers before Neil Warnock was given the job.

Tim Sherwood was linked with it, as was Steve Clarke, and then, of course, there was Malky Mackay. He looked certain to get it until Vincent Tan played his trump card and revealed the Scot's texting ability with Iain Moody, by then the sporting director at Palace.

Palace ended talks with Mackay and sacked Moody before the arrival of Warnock who had previously been in charge there from October 2007 until March 2010 before leaving for QPR.

His first home game in charge was the 0-0 draw against us but soon after there were rumours circulating that his job was under threat, and he was fired the day after Boxing Day with Millen again stepping in.

There were even rumours of Pulis coming back but the surprise choice was Alan Pardew who accepted the job on 3rd January. Whilst Pulis was locked in talks they drew two away games 0-0 at QPR and Aston Villa.

Since his appointment was confirmed they have beaten Dover 4-0 in the FA Cup and followed that up by coming from behind to beat Spurs 2-1 at Selhurst park with a Dwight Gayle penalty and a winner from Jason Puncheon.

That victory over Spurs, played in front of the Sky cameras, took them back above us and Sunderland on goal difference; all three of us are currently on 20 points.

According to Jerome Thomas, a player back in contention since the change of manager, Pardew has told them to spread their wings. He said: "Alan came in and said what he was looking for, he wanted the lads to be more positive and express themselves more, 'spread our wings' is the phrase he used, and he's been showing us that on the training field and the two games that he's been in charge so far."

He added: "It's a massive game but I don't think that's because of Burnley. It's more us wanting to get back to back wins. That's the key to getting on a run  and that's what we're focusing on."

Palace will have James McArthur, one of our summer targets, available after he shrugged off a foot injury picked up in the Spurs win although Marouane Chamakh is still struggling with a hamstring injury.

They will also be without both Yannick Bolasie and Mile Jedinak who are away on international duty with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Australia respectively. They could, however, include new loan signing Yaya Sanogo who has arrived from Arsenal. Pardew claims he could cause chaos.

The Palace team that beat Spurs was: Julian Speroni, Stephen Kelly, Scott Dann, Damien Delaney, Joel Ward, James McArthur, Joe Ledley, Barry Bannan, Jason Puncheon, Dwight Gayle, Glenn Murray. Subs: Wayne Hennessey, Adrian Mariappa, Brede Hangeland, Jerome Thomas, Fraizer Campbell, Wilfried Zaha, Aldene Guedioura.

 

Last Time They Were Here

Palace's last visit to Burnley was two years ago earlier this week, on 12th January 2013. We'd beaten Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in our last league game, played on New Year's Day, to take us to 13th in the table, but Palace, with Ian Holloway having replaced Dougie Freedman were third in the table, just a couple of points behind second place Hull.

Things had slipped since Holloway had gone in. They too had won on New Year's Day but had won just one of the previous eight games.

Junior Stanislas scored the winning goal

Holloway in the visiting dug out is usually good news for Burnley at Turf Moor and so it proved again with Junior Stanislas scoring the only goal of the game nine minutes from time to give us the three points and a place in the top half of the league.

Burnley were without the suspended Brian Stock, sent off in the cup at Barnsley while all of Ben Mee, Chris McCann, Martin Paterson and Charlie Austin were all still ruled out with injury.

It was no surprise, after the cup defeat, to see Lee Grant come back in goal and David Edgar took the midfield role for Stock. Stanislas was preferred to Keith Treacy who took a place on the bench with Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Kevin Long, Marvin Bartley and new signing Dane Richards.

We dominated the first half and the only thing missing was a goal, largely due to the fact that we were missing target too often with the main culprit Sam Vokes.

Inevitably, Palace improved after the break but the first chance fell to Vokes and this was a golden opportunity, probably the best of the afternoon.

With around ten minutes to go we'd seen them off and it looked all set to end 0-0. Sean Dyche decided to make a double change and got both Bartley and Treacy ready to come on, but before we could get either of them over the line we took the lead.

Vokes played the ball down the right for Danny Ings. Damien Delaney should have won the ball but Ings chased him and got the better of him. He pulled the ball back for Stanislas on the edge of the box.

Stanislas shifted the ball with one touch and then curled a right foot shot into the top corner before going down with cramp and being substituted.

We got to the end of 90 minutes with no problems but in the five minutes added on had to defend a couple of corners and get away with some pandemonium in our box.

But it was another win. Palace dropped a couple of places, we were in the top half and looking forward to a trip to Millwall.

The teams were;

Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Dean Marney, David Edgar, Ross Wallace (Marvin Bartley 82), Danny Ings, Junior Stanislas (Keith Treacy 82), Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Kevin Long, Dane Richards, Alex MacDonald.

Crystal Palace: Julian Speroni, Jonathan Parr, Peter Ramage, Damien Delaney, Dean Moxey, Stuart O'Keefe (Alex Nimely 83), Mile Jedinak, Andre Moritz (Jonathan Williams 90), Yannick Bolasie (Aaron Wilbraham 90), Glenn Murray, Wilfried Zaha. Subs not used: Lewis Price, Matthew, Parsons, Danny Gabbidon, Jermaine Easter.

 

Previous Games against Crystal Palace

 

Last 20 Years
Season Comp Ven Res Att  Scorers
2000/01 Division 1 a 1-0 18,531 Branch
  Worth'tn Cup h 2-2 5,889 Cooke, Payton(pen)
  Worth'tn Cup a 1-1 5,720 Cooke - lost on away goals
  Division 1 h 1-2 14,973 Cook
2001/02 Division 1 h 1-0 14,713 Cook
    a 2-1 18,457 I Moore(2)
2002/03 Division 1 h 0-0 12,407  
    h 1-1 16,344 Taylor
2003/04 Division 1 h 2-3 12,976 Blake, Roche
    a 0-0 15,276  
2005/06 Championship a 0-2 20,127  
    h 0-0 11,449  
2006/07 Championship a 2-2 16,396 Mahon, Lafferty
    h 1-1 10,659 Akinbiyi
2007/08 Championship h 1-1 10,711 Blake
    a 0-5 23,950  
2008/09 Championship a 0-0 14,071  
    h 4-2 10,312 Carlisle, Alexander(pen), Thompson, Rodriguez
2010/11 Championship a 0-0 14,451  
    h 1-0 14,848 Rodriguez
2011/12 Championship a 0-2 13,167  
    h 1-1 13,216 Rodriguez(pen)
2012/13 Championship a 3-4 20,863 McCann, Paterson, Austin
    h 1-0 11,564 Stanislas
2014/15 Premier League a 0-0 23,829  

 

Click HERE to see all previous results against Crystal Palace