Palace v Plymouth Argyle

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

The Football League

Team news

New signings Darren Ambrose plus strikers Stern John and on-loan West Ham youngster Freddie Sears should start for Neil Warnock's side. Calvin Andrew is sidelined with a knee injury picked up while on loan at Brighton last season.

Plymouth defender Chris Barker (calf) and forward Bradley Wright-Phillips (knee) won't play. On-loan Blackburn striker Alan Judge will replace Wright-Phillips up front. CARL FLETCHER and Reda Johnson are set to make their Pilgrims debuts.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"The last two games haven't been good but overall it's been a very good pre-season.

"I imagine if Plymouth had seen us the last couple of games they would be rubbing their hands with glee but it's a different ball game when the season starts.

"We are going to have to battle for everything we get, there will be some games that are not so pretty, but you have to try and come out with points and I expect Saturday to be the same. I don't expect it to be a wonderful array of football."

Paul Sturrock

"It's always hard to make a decision but I think we're a better team than we were last season. It's important that we start the season properly and get a settled team, then I'm confident we're going to be competitive in this league.

"We won a certain amount of games early on last season and after 20 games we were fifth in the league. But after 13 more games we were in the bottom five - that's how Jekyll and Hyde we were last season."

Plymouth Argyle - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
15th	0	0	0	0	0

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
17/02/2009	League	Plymouth Argyle	1 - 3	Crystal Palace
20/09/2008	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Plymouth Argyle
22/12/2007	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 1	Plymouth Argyle
02/10/2007	League	Plymouth Argyle	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
17/03/2007	League	Plymouth Argyle	1 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

One to watch

Carl Fletcher

Plymouth Argyle's top scorer

(last season) Paul Gallagher - 13 goals

Plymouth Argyle's bad boy

(last season) Rory Fallon - 6 0

Palace old boys

Carl Fletcher

Ref watch

A M Penn.

Last meeting

Plymouth Argyle 1-3 Palace

Tuesday February 17 2009

Plymouth Argyle: Larrieu, Doumbe, Cathcart, Timar, Sawyer, Judge (Barnes 64), Duguid, Paterson, MacLean (Noone 61), Fallon (Gallagher 64), Mackie

Subs Not Used: Clark, Summerfield

Booked: MacLean

Goals: Sawyer 68

Palace: Speroni, Clyne, Jose Fonte, Davis, Hill, Oster (Butterfield 80), Derry, Danns, Scannell (Hills 71), Lee (Kuqi 71), Ifill

Subs Not Used: Lawrence, Moses

Goals: Danns 21, Lee 28, Oster 43