Palace v Middlesbrough

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Emmerson Boyce

Team news

Right-backs Emmerson Boyce (broken foot) is out for the season and Danny Butterfield (groin) is also sidelined. Mikele Leigertwood will take Boyce's place.

Centre-back Gonzalo Sorondo (knee) is a doubt after going off injured in the recent defeat at Chelsea.

Andy Johnson has recovered from a foot injury which forced him to pull out of last week's England squad. Vassilis Lakis is back from suspension.

Middlesbrough's Mark Viduka, George Boateng and Ray Parlour are all back from long injury spells.

Michael Reiziger and Joseph-Desire Job are both missing through injury.

Ref-Watch - by SpikeyMatt

Referee: Steve Dunn [Farming country] Christ almighty, the Premiership lark is getting to me - no games over Easter, two consecutive two week gaps between matches and still rumours flying about over Mourinho's involvement with Anders Frisk in Barcelona; it's almost turning into another episode of EastEnders, but with less predictable plot lines.

It's almost like a whoDUNNit, that rather awful pun leads me onto informing you that Steve Dunn will be taking charge of Palace's game on Saturday afternoon at home to a team looking to get their passports out for another season - hopefully Palace can promptly slam t'Boro back in their place - mid bloody table.

So, Steve Dunn, apart from refereeing, in his spare time, Dunn can be found at his local McDonalds tucking into another Big Mac, or be wolfing down another pie on his rather lavish estate, paid for by the Premier League, paid for by the fans...scandalous!

Dunny, what an unfortunate nickname, is refereeing his third Palace game of the season. Both of his other ones occured at the Prawn Sandwich den against the ManUre. One of which saw him give a penalty, to 'them' of course - which was taken by Shrek Rooney and saved by Super Gabor in goal. I hope his refereeing performances isn't as toilet as it was oop north.

57 yellows, 2 reds and 3 penalties, the story of Stevie D's season so far - the penalty count is almost certain to rise on Saturday. What with AJ not having had a penalty in TWO, yes, TWO matches - I'd like to think Dunny can slip one our way.

Eight games left, eight referees to go, 24 points left to get, 17th place to obtain - the final weeks of the season are all down to figures, hopefully Palace's figure in the points column will be higher than three other clubs' come May 15th.

That is the end of what is quite a short ref-watch for this week, Middlesbrough don't really have any players notorious for doing much - we'll see on Saturday.

Back to Mr & Mrs Lovejoy....

Middlesbrough - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
9th	30	11	9	10	42

Full league table

Middlesbrough - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	1	2	2	4	7

Full form table

Our home record v Middlesbrough

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
15	8	3	4	29	18

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
28/08/2004	League	Middlesbrough	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
08/11/1995	League Cup	Middlesbrough	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
25/10/1995	League Cup	Crystal Palace	2 - 2	Middlesbrough
01/05/1994	League	Middlesbrough	2 - 3	Crystal Palace
23/03/1994	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Middlesbrough

All time results

One to watch

Stewart Downing

Middlesbrough's top scorer

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink - 11 goals

Middlesbrough's bad boy

Ray Parlour - 11 1

Palace old boys

Pizza Hut Man (Gareth Southgate)

Described as ‘the long term solution’ to England’s left-sided problem by fans and pundits alike, Stewart Downing, a real gem in terms of raw talent and is in possession of one of the sweetest left feet in the Premiership, is Middlesbrough’s one to watch this coming Saturday.

Standing at 5ft 11 inches tall, the 20 year old brought up through the Middlesbrough youth academy, rumoured to have been scouted when he was just 11 years old doing keepie-uppies with a lump of coal in his back garden; is an extremely exciting winger who can ‘unlock any defence with his wicked left foot’. Such a tool in his armoury is of high use to Middlesbrough’s attacking force in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Mark Viduka, Joseph I desire a Job and Szilard Nemeth who are deadly in sight of the opposition goal.

Downing burst onto the Premiership scene towards the end of last season when he managed to break into Steve McClaren’s starting eleven for the final 7 games of the season. This season has seen him play a part in 27 of Middlesbrough’s 30 league matches. It’s what he’s done whilst on the pitch in these 27 appearances which led to him getting a two deserved call-ups to the England squad for the farcical friendly against Holland and the recent qualifying matches at home to Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan.

Amongst his arsenal of weaponry is his direct-ness when running towards goal, I’m yet to see many other players who just pick the ball up and run for goal – this is a big reason why Middlesbrough are looking to dust off their passports for the second season running, his assists and selflessness are pivotal to why ‘Boro are still chasing a UEFA Cup place. The guy’s also got an excellent shot on him, having bagged four goals this season, he will be looking to add to that tally on Saturday.

With Emmerson Boyce out of action, whoever’s filling in at right-back will have their work cut out to reduce the threat induced by such a promising English left winger. (Never thought I’d hear those words together!)