Palace v Sheffield Wednesday

Selhurst Park, Tuesday 8.00pm

Aki Riihilahti

Team news

Riihilahti was forced to come off injured with a back injury before half-time in Saturday's 1-1 at home to Preston.

New signing Marco Reich could make his first start of the season on the wing.

"Marco has done excellently in his first two games for the club," said assistant manager Neil McDonald.

"He is putting pressure on the manager to pick him from the start against Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday."

Fitz Hall is back after his one-match suspension after collecting five bookings. Andy Johnson (knee), Mikele Leigertwood (ankle) and Tony Popovic are still injured.

Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Jon-Paul McGovern (thigh) is a doubt. Defender Graham Coughlan has shaken off a virus and could start.

Sheffield Wednesday - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
24th	9	1	4	4	7

Full league table

Sheffield Wednesday - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	1	2	2	4	6

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
22/02/2003	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 0	Sheffield Wednesday
25/09/2002	League	Sheffield Wednesday	0 - 0	Crystal Palace
02/02/2002	League	Sheffield Wednesday	1 - 3	Crystal Palace
10/10/2001	League Cup	Sheffield Wednesday	2 - 2	Crystal Palace
29/09/2001	League	Crystal Palace	4 - 1	Sheffield Wednesday

All time results

One to watch

Steven MacLean

Sheffield Wednesday's top scorer

6 players - 1 goals

Sheffield Wednesday's bad boy

John Hills - 2 1

Palace old boys

None

With Palace generally having a strong, robust defence - it takes someone of real quality to penetrate that back-line and then outwit the eccentric Gabor Király in goal.

Steven MacLean could be that quality player....

Wednesday beat off competition from a number of clubs to secure Steven's services when he joined from Glasgow Rangers for an undisclosed fee in July 2004. He had a superb first term in which he was voted the Player of the Year after becoming the first Owl to score 20 goals in a season for 11 years.

The man from the Scottish capital is a frontman who is an astute finisher and gets on the end of chances in and around the penalty area and can also link up play between midfield and the forward line.

He moved south to Sheffield after a highly successful loan spell with scunthorpe United in 2003-04. The Scot fired 25 goals for the Iron to top the Division Three scoring charts during his year at Glanford Park, with his tally including three hat-tricks. The Edinburgh product came through the ranks at Rangers before appearing in their first team and has represented Scotland at under-21 level.

Other players that Palace should be wary of are the highly rated, Jon-Paul McGovern, aptly named Chris Eagles whilst Chris Brunt possesses a brilliant, clean strike of a dead ball.

Last meeting

Palace 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday

Saturday February 22 2003

Palace: Berthelin, Granville, Powell, Mullins, Butterfield, Thomson (Routledge, 33 (Adebola, 68)), Riihilahti, Gray (Borrowdale, 88), Johnson, Akinbiyi, Black

Subs not used: Kolinko, Antwi

Sheffield Wednesday: Evans, Smith, Maddix, Monk, Westwood, McLaren, Quinn, Johnston, Barry-Murphy, Reddy (Crane, 89), Owusu (Kuqi, 81)

Subs not used: Haslam, Stringer, Green

Bookings: McLaren, Quinn