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But of those nineteen players we have Ian Moore out suspended following his sending off in the last home game against Sheffield Wednesday whilst Gareth Taylor and Mark McGregor are ruled out with injury.
McGregor tweaked a knee in training and initially Stan said he would be a couple of weeks but that is over three weeks ago and it is obviously taking a little longer than first expected and there is no news as to whether he is back in any sort of training.
Taylor’s injury is worse and came about in the Leeds friendly when Michael Duberry accidentally scratched his eye with a fingernail. We believe that Gareth is still in hospital in Manchester with the injury now much worse than originally feared.
There has been no news on Joel Pilkington whatsoever but we are led to believe that the young midfielder is also out injured and that leaves us with just fifteen players to choose from at this moment in time with loan signing Luke Chadwick thankfully cleared to play following an operation on a dislocated jaw.
Who plays and who doesn’t is difficult to work out although there have been suggestions that Chadwick will start.
Maybe we will play a 4-3-3 style system and line up: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Graham Branch, Arthur Gnohere, Mo Camara, Paul Weller, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant, Glen Little, Robbie Blake, Luke Chadwick. Subs: Dean West, Alan Moore, Matt O’Neill, Paul Scott plus one other.
Palace meanwhile will be without Hayden Mullins who is serving a suspension for collecting fifteen yellow cards last season whilst Curtis Fleming and Danny Granville are out injured. Fleming is back in training but not ready yet whilst Granville has had a hernia operation this week.
Neil Shipperley is the only signing. Two other former Franchise players Michael Hughes and Mark Williams have now signed. They were hoping to have completed the Hughes deal after he turned in two superb performances in friendlies against PSV Eindhoven and Chelsea but Williams remains on trial.
Manager Steve Kember, in charge on a permanent basis for the first time, has said that his side won’t be worrying about the opposition and will be going out to play open and attacking football.
They will play in a 3-4-3 formation and will almost certainly line up Matt Clark, Kit Symons, Darren Powell, Tony Popovic, Danny Butterfield, Shaun Derry, Aki Riihilahti, Wayne Routledge, Andy Johnson, Neil Shipperley, Dougie Freedman.