Preston North End v Palace

Deepdale, Saturday 3.00pm

The Football League

Team news

Former Scotland boss Craig Brown takes charge at Deepdale for his first full season after David Moyes left for Everton.

Over the summer Preston have lost the services of their club captain Sean Gregan to Premiership newboys West Brom.

Former Blackburn and England U21 defender Marlon Broomes has been signed to cover for his loss.

They have a familiar face in RICARDO FULLER, who was on trial at Palace two seasons ago.

He failed to impress the management in only a few sub appearances, but has had an impressive pre-season for Preston. Expect him to play out of his skin to remind us what we could have had.

Trevor Francis has lost the services of Clinton Morrison over the summer but will be able to give league debuts to four new signings, Danny Butterfield, Shaun Derry, Andy Johnson and Darren Powell. All are expected to start on Saturday.

Trevor Francis said: "It's a tough start. Preston have been a good side for the last two or three years.

"Like us they have lost their best player - in their case Sean Gregan - but I am sure they will adjust.

"I am pleased with the way things are going at Palace. I have got seven of my own players here now and it is starting to resemble my team.

"I think we can have a good season, but I am not going to make any rash predictions because players need time to settle in."

Deepdale is not a happy hunting ground for Palace - they have lost on the last two visits and both times played shockingly bad.

Our away record v Preston North End

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
12	1	5	6	7	14

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
13/04/2002	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Preston North End
24/11/2001	League	Preston North End	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
03/03/2001	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 2	Preston North End
30/09/2000	League	Preston North End	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
24/02/1979	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 0	Preston North End

All time results

One to watch

Richard Cresswell

Palace old boys

Ricardo Fuller.

The former York, Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester forward made his mark with North End last season with a run of goalscoring matches including a header against the Palace in our encounter with the Lilywhites at Deepdale last season. Strong in the air and surprisingly adept on the ground, Cresswell creates a threat at set pieces and from whipped crosses, meaning Popovic and the rest of the defence will have to be at their best in the air if they are to counter Preston's main threat since Macken's departure to Manchester City last season.

Probable line-up

	Freedman	Johnson
Mullins	Riihilahti	Derry	Butterfield
Granville	Popovic	Powell	Fleming
Clarke

Last meeting

Palace 2-0 Preston North End

Saturday April 13 2002

Palace: Kolinko, Fleming, Popovic, Austin, Granville, Mullins, Frampton (Hopkin, 45), Riihilahti, Gray (Rubins, 25 (Routledge, 87)), Akinbiyi, Morrison

Subs not used: Black, Carasso

Goals: Hopkin 55, Akinbiyi 64

Bookings: Akinbiyi , Popovic

Preston North End: Moilanen, Alexander, Gregan, Jackson, Edwards, Ainsworth (Healy, 66), McKenna, Etuhu, Keane (Anderson, 76), Wijnhard, Cresswell

Subs not used: Lucas, Rankine, Eaton

Booking: Alexander