The Palace of Legends

Neither of us were able to get back to winning ways either in the Carling Cup, in a week when no fewer than twelve Championship sides went out to teams from either League One or League Two. Hartlepool were the side we came unstuck against, Palace failed to get through in their home time against another League Two side Notts County.

These were the first defeats for Legend in his own Mind Peter Taylor who took over at Selhurst Park in the summer a couple of weeks after pledging his loyalty to Hull. He came in to his former club as replacement for Iain Dowie who had upset the league's top sun tan Simon Jordan as he passed through the exit door.

Some top managers were linked with the job, then when they fell by the wayside Graeme Souness looked to be heading there, but in the end the Legend it was as he decided to head back to the club for whom he first won international honours as a player.

He took over a club that had lost players such as Aki Riihilati and Wayne Andrews and had brought a bit of money in with the expected sale of Andy Johnson who finally chose to go to Everton in a deal worth over £8 million. He'd not been in the job long when Fitz Hall decided to move on and returned to the North West with Wigan bringing in another £3 million.

In fiction, such as Sky's Dream Team, managers go for brothers, in reality that hardly happens but Taylor's first two targets were just that, brothers. He signed Leon Cort from his old club Hull, spending £1.25 million and looked all set to bring in brother Carl from Wolves, but the striker turned him down and chose to stay at Molineux.

There have been more signings, five to be exact. Mark Kennedy did make the move from Wolves and he was quickly joined by young Barnsley goalkeeper Scott Flinders. Taylor then got the cheque book out again, paying Coventry £500,000 for James Scowcroft, who was close to joining the Clarets last year, and then £400,000 to West Ham for Carl Fletcher.

Finally, just days before the season got underway 32 year old Millwall defender Matt Lawrence completed the summer spending in readiness for their first game against Ipswich at Portman Road.

Everything was going well until last Saturday, they won their first three games scoring six goals into the bargain and sat on top of the league as the only side with a 100% record. They went in front at Birmingham and only lost their unbeaten record in stoppage time at St Andrew's.

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

They will be looking to get back to winning ways after these two defeats, but so will we. Although we can't go back to the top, with Birmingham and Cardiff playing each other, a good result will see us back into the top six going into the first international break.

Palace have only one injury, and that is Rhoys Wiggins who is ruled out for the whole season with a knee injury, but Taylor is unlikely to field a side anything like the one that was beaten in the Carling Cup.

For that game he gave some of his fringe players an opportunity. Flinders, Lawrence, Darren Ward, Gary Borrowdale, Marco Reich, Michael Hughes, Jonathan Macken, Dougie Freedman and Clinton Morrison all got starts but none of them are expected to be in the starting line up tomorrow.

It is much more likely that, despite the defeat last Saturday, Taylor will revert to the team that played against Birmingham and they will probably line up:

Gabor Kiraly, Danny Butterfield, Leon Cort, Mark Hudson, Danny Granville, Jobi McAnuff, Carl Fletcher, Ben Watson, Mark Kennedy, Tom Soares, James Scowcroft. Subs: Scott Flinders, Matt Lawrence, Marco Reich, Dougie Freedman, Clinton Morrison.

Click HERE to see the full Palace squad.

Steve Cotterill will be forced into at least one change with captain and centre half Wayne Thomas ruled out after receiving his eighth red card in less than six years. He is suspended just for the one game and will be able to return for the home game against Colchester in two weeks time.

Stephen Foster will probably get the call to replace Thomas and if so it will be his first start for the club since signing from Crewe in the summer and one other change from the team defeated by Wolves could see a place for James O'Connor who was back in for the Hartlepool game. If he does play then it would be no surprise to see youngster Chris McCann drop out after a couple of games that have seen him below his best.

Burnley's team could be: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Stephen Foster, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Steve Jones, Micah Hyde, James O'Connor, Alan Mahon, Kyle Lafferty, Andy Gray. Subs from: John McGreal, Chris McCann Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Wade Elliott, Graham Branch, Gifton Noel-Williams.

It was something of a disappointing game. We'd just got our season moving and had won the previous two away games at Wolves and Leicester, the second of them coming just four days before this game.

Palace edged it 2-0, and if either side deserved to win it they did. But we could so easily have got something out of it but missed our chances when the came. Ade Akinbiyi, playing at one of his old clubs, was the main culprit missing the easiest chance of the afternoon with a header that he put wide. We were 1-0 down at the time but Palace doubled their lead within a couple of minutes and that was just about it.

We changed from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 with the introduction of Gifton Noel-Williams, and the performance did improve. But we weren't able to get a goal back and fell to defeat, although we did go on to win the next four games.

The teams were;

Crystal Palace: Gabor Kiraly, Danny Butterfield, Fitz Hall, Darren Ward, Emmerson Boyce, Jobi McAnuff (Wayne Andrews 45), Ben Watson, Tom Soares, Marco Reich (Michael Hughes 83), Clinton Morrison, Jonathan Macken (Dougie Freedman 38). Subs not used: Julian Speroni, Mark Hudson.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Duane Courtney 82), John Spicer (Gifton Noel-Williams 67), James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Garreth O'Connor, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Keith Lowe, Chris McCann, Danny Karbassiyoon.