Palace v Southampton

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

It was only in Monday's preview that I mentioned the manager merry-go-round. Tomorrow sees us come up against managerless Southampton.

At least Burley moving on wasn't down to an impatient board but Burley himself wanting to further his career by taking a step down at Scotland before moving on to bigger and better things.

Burley had been doing a decent job at Southampton - guiding them to the playoffs last season with some brilliant attacking football and some poor defending. The defence became even more depleted this season meaning that Southampton have probably lost too many games to guide them to the playoffs.

They have had decent form of late, having only lost 3 games since the end of November. Bradley Wright-Phillips and Stern John have hit good form in front of goal whilst the defence has been tighter.

Two things that won't help the Saints tomorrow is the loss of Grzegorz Rasiak and Rudi Skacel - with both being regulars in the team this season.

Jason Dodd and John Gorman have the pleasure of taking on Neil Warnock tomorrow. Hopefully their tactics allow Scowcroft to bag another hattrick, which won't be so easy this time with the return to fitness and Selhurst for Darren Powell.

Team news

Paul Ifill could make an appearance on the bench after working his way back to fitness. The former Millwall winger, who has started just eight games in a year, looks to have overcome back and hamstring problems.

New signing Neil Danns is match fit and ready to make his Palace debut after joining from Birmingham City last week in a £600,000 move.

Shefki Kuqi, who is back from his loan spell at Fulham, may replace James Scowcroft in attack as the frontman has Achilles trouble. Left-back TONY CRAIG is still missing with a shoulder injury.

Southampton left-back Gregory Vignal won't play after breaking his arm in Tuesday night's loss against Norwich.

Polish striker Saganowski is set to start after Grzegorz Rasiak's deadline day switch to Bolton.

Andrew Davies (ankle) should be ok, but Claus Lundekvam (ankle), goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski (back), winger Nathan Dyer and defender Chris Makin (hip) are still sidelined.

Youssef Safri may return after Morocco were knocked out of the African Cup of Nations, former Eagle Darren Powell is back after a calf injury but right-back Alexander Ostlund is a doubt with a thigh problem.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

It wasn't a weird feeling in the dressing room after Monday night's defeat - but rather one of total disappointment because we wanted to keep our good run going. Losing is hard to take, but I suppose it's just one of those things.

Leicester's winner came from a collection of errors on our part.

We got caught ball watching, pulled out of position, there was a missed kick and a defender was caught the wrong side of Barry Hayles.

But when games are tight, like Monday night's game was, the outcome can always depend on a mistake and we made several in the lead up to the goal.

However, we've got more than enough character in the team to bounce back against Southampton on Saturday.

There's still 18 games, so we want to go on another run starting on Saturday.

We've played a lot of football in recent weeks, but I don't think we are tired - in fact I thought we looked strong in the closing stages against Leicester.

We have to remain positive.

It's great to be involved in a promotion race - and we have to revel in it.

John Gorman

"Palace are pretty formidable at the moment and had been on a great run until Monday's defeat at Leicester but we can go there with no fears.

"I was really pleased with the way we performed on tuesday. I enjoyed watching the lads play some outstanding football but the ball ust would not run for us in front of goal.

"We hit the woodwork three times and the fans appreciated what we were doing. We did put in a great performance but did not get the goal we deserved.

"I thought a point was the very least we deserved and even that would have been disappointing but to lose was very hard to take.

"But we will go to Palace in a very positive mood. We might have to vary the formation slightly but we will continue to play an attacking style."

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Southampton - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
14th	29	10	7	12	37

Full league table

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Southampton - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	3	1	1	6	2

Full form table

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Our home record v Southampton

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
32	15	8	9	44	35

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
11/08/2007	League	Southampton	1 - 4	Crystal Palace
26/12/2006	League	Southampton	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
12/09/2006	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 2	Southampton
22/04/2006	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 1	Southampton
25/01/2006	League	Southampton	0 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

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One to watch

Bradley Wright-Phillips

The biological son of the prolific Ian Wright seems to be coming to form at long last.

The 22 year old began his career at Manchester City with his half brother and more famously known Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Much like his father, Bradley began his career being known as the 'Super Sub'. He'd be able to come on and score a winner or equaliser.

Again, like Ian, Bradley can score some great goals and his positional is good - either using his pace to pull away from defenders or his nouse to roll off of defenders to find a bit of space.

Ref watch

M Halsey

Last meeting

Southampton 1-4 Palace

Saturday August 11 2007

Southampton: Bialkowski, Ostlund, Bennett, Makin, Vignal (Skacel, 67), Viafara (Hammill, 63), Wright , Safri, Surman, Saganowski (Wright-Phillips, 76), Rasiak

Subs not used: Davis, McGoldrick

Bookings: Makin, Viafara

Goals: Saganowski 45

Palace: Speroni, Lawrence, Cort, Hudson, Craig, Green, Watson, Soares, Kennedy (Butterfield, 68), Morrison (Kuqi, 62), Scowcroft (Freedman, 75)

Subs not used: Flinders, Martin

Goals: Scowcroft 30, Scowcroft 31, Scowcroft 55, Morrison 57

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