Sheffield United v Palace

Bramall Lane, Tuesday 7.45pm

Worthington Cup

Team news

The road to the Quarter Finals has seen The Eagles beat off competition from Plymouth in round one, Cheltenham Town in the second stage, Gary McAllister’s Coventry City in the third round and most recently Oldham Athletic in the fourth round.

Trevor Francis will have to make some wholesale changes to the side that beat Norwich 2-0 at the weekend as injuries and suspensions once again hit the squad. Danny Granville starts his three match ban following his sending off in the previous round of the Worthington Cup against Oldham. Another defender missing is centre back Tony Popovic who was substituted on Saturday due to injury.

Dele Adebola is rated as doubtful which means that in form Tommy Black will once again start alongside Andy Johnson who has just recently returned from injury. Julian Gray is likely to regain his place in the starting XI as could central midfielder Shaun Derry.

Sheffield United manager Neil Wornock will have to do without the two strikers who started the game against Palace last month as Dean Windass’s loan is over and ex Palace boy Steve Kabba is cup tied.

This means that Carl Asaba and Wayne Allison will lead the Blades’ attack. Meanwhile midfielder Michael Brown, who was once rumoured to be signing for Palace, is likely to return from injury and slot straight into the starting line up.

Sheffield United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
5th	22	11	6	5	39

Full league table

Sheffield United - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	4	1	0	11	1

Full form table

Our away record v Sheffield United

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
20	7	5	8	20	23

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
30/11/2002	League	Sheffield United	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
23/02/2002	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Sheffield United
25/09/2001	League	Sheffield United	1 - 3	Crystal Palace
24/02/2001	League	Sheffield United	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
23/09/2000	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Sheffield United