Palace in the play offs

They were already up there when we went to Palace, and although they slipped somewhat in the lead up to Christmas a look back shows the last time they were outside the top six was after the games on Boxing Day. A win that day, and another two days later took them back into the top six, then at our expense, and they've been there ever since.

Dowie has kept Palace up there without any changes to his squad, the signing of Clinton Morrison at the end of August remains his last and not one loan player has pulled on a Palace shirt this season.

Palace have lost their last two away games, at Derby and Leicester but overall their recent away form is good with only one defeat in the nine games prior to that. Their goals have come predominantly from the two strikers Andy Johnson and Clinton Morrison, they have scored 26 of Palace's league goals this season whilst Jobi McAnuff has netted eight times.

It's just a matter of playing for positions now, and only three points separate the top six, Palace currently occupy the last of those four places and if things were to remain the same they would play Watford in the semi-final.

Do we want Palace to go up? I suppose from a selfish view it would get that dreadful journey to Selhurst Park off the fixture list for next season. But it is all going to be a close run thing.

Click HERE to see Palace's results for this season.

Palace drew 2-2 with Crewe on Saturday and it appears that they all came through the game without injury. Both Jobi McAnuff and Fitz Hall missed out but Hall is back in contention today although McAnuff is not expected to be involved.

They will select from: Gabor Kiraly, Emmerson Boyce, Darren Ward, Mark Hudson, Gary Borrowdale, Tom Soares, Ben Watson, Michael Hughes, Marco Reich, Andy Johnson, Dougie Freedman, Julian Speroni, Danny Granville, Jonathan Macken, Clinton Morrison, Mikele Leigertwood, Fitz Hall.

Click HERE to see the full Palace squad.

For Steve Cotterill much will depend on the fitness of Phil Bardsley. Thankfully the injury is not as bad as expected although today's game could come just too early for him to be involved.

We're not likely to make too many changes and the most likely option is John McGreal coming into the side with Frank Sinclair moving to full back, as he did at Hull on Saturday.

Our expected line up: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Alan Mahon, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Graham Branch, Andy Gray, Kyle Lafferty. Subs from: Micah Hyde, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Wade Elliott, Danny Karbassiyoon, Michael Ricketts.

It was the opening day of the 2003/04 season, played on one of the hottest days of the year. The temperatures were certainly high for Palace, under new boss Steve Kember and they ended the game with nine men.

To read more of this game, and other recent games against Palace see Palace improve record in our look back section.

The teams that day were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Graham Branch, Arthur Gnohere, Mo Camara, Luke Chadwick, Paul Weller (Tony Grant 77), Richard Chaplow (Dean West 80), Glen Little, Robbie Blake, Alan Moore (Matt O'Neill 84). Sub not used: Paul Scott.

Crystal Palace: Matt Clarke, Matt Clark, Kit Symons (Gary Borrowdale 22), Darren Powell, Tony Popovic, Danny Butterfield, Shaun Derry, Ben Watson (Aki Riihilahti 63), Wayne Routledge, Andy Johnson, Neil Shipperley, Dougie Freedman. Subs not used: Jamie Smith, Tommy Black, Cedric Berthelin.