Palace v Nottm Forest

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

The Football League

Team news

Unbeaten in the past 10 games and having won the last four games Palace will be going into Saturday’s game in confident mood.

Trevor Francis will have to make some important changes to the starting line up as injuries have once again ht the squad. Alex Kolinko and Dougie Freedman both picked up groin strains during the 3-0 defeat of Coventry while Aki Riihilahti suffered a calf injury.

With Kolinko injured Nic the Greek will start in goal and not for the first time this season youngster Lance Cronin will tae a place on the bench.

Meanwhile Hayden Mullins is suspended for the game after picking up his 5th booking against Walsall last week. Steve Thomson is likely to replace him in midfield with Kit Symons who has recently recovered from a long term injury being drafted into the defence.

DELE ADEBOLA and Andy Johnson will once again start up front with Tommy Black, Julian Gray and Steve Kabba all in contention to replace Freedman.

Nottingham Forest have started the season well as they currently occupy fifth place and like Palace are on a good unbeaten run not having lost in their past nine games.

Manager Paul Hart also has some serious selection headaches with both Matthieu Louis-Jean and Gareth Williams struggling to be fit in time for Saturday’s match. They will both have to undertake late fitness tests before knowing whether they will make the starting first XI.

Nottm Forest - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
5th	16	8	5	3	29

Full league table

Nottm Forest - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	2	3	0	7	3

Full form table

Our home record v Nottm Forest

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
24	8	11	5	31	27

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
20/12/2001	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Nottm Forest
25/08/2001	League	Nottm Forest	4 - 2	Crystal Palace
14/01/2001	League	Nottm Forest	0 - 3	Crystal Palace
28/08/2000	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 3	Nottm Forest
19/02/2000	League	Nottm Forest	2 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

One to watch

David Johnson

Nottm Forest's top scorer

Johnson - 16 goals

Nottm Forest's bad boy

Prutton - 3 1

Palace old boys

None

The former Bury and Ipswich striker didn't set the world alight when he first joined Forest, but this season he has really come into his own, filling the void left by Stern John's departure. With 14 league goals already this term, he is the main reason for Forest's push up the table and he is certainly the man to watch on Saturday!

Probable line-up

	Adebola	Kabba
Gray	Derry	Thomson	Johnson
Granville	Popovic	Powell	Butterfield
Michopoulos

Last meeting

Palace 1-1 Nottm Forest

Thursday December 20 2001

Palace: Kolinko, Smith, Harrison (Gray 66), Edwards (Berhalter 46), Symons, Thomson, Hopkin, Riihilahti, Freedman (Kirovski 70), Benjamin, Morrison.

Subs not used: Black, Carasso.

Booked: Berhalter.

Goal: Morrison 37.

Nottm Forest: Ward, Brennan, Scimeca, Hjelde, Prutton, Summerbee, Bopp, Jenas (Vaughan 46), Louis-Jean, Williams, John.

Subs not used: Roche, Johnson, Lester, Gray.

Booked: Hjelde, Louis-Jean.

Goal: John 3.