Palace v Millwall

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Selhurst Park

Team news

Palace have a striker shortage with on-loan Everton star JAMES VAUGHAN sitting out the final game of his suspension, while Pablo Counago (hamstring) is injured.

Midfield duo Darren Ambrose (leg), Neil Danns (knee), Adam Barrett (foot) and Lee Hills (knee) are missing.

However, Jon Obika (calf), Claude Davis (back) and full-back David Wright (calf) are in contention after making good recoveries from their respective injuries this week.

Millwall's Alan Dunne and Liam Trotter are both out with suspensions. Jack Smith has a calf injury, so Tamika Mkandawire could step in.

Kevin Lisbie, Darren Carter, John Marquis and Andy Frampton have all recovered from their injuries.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"It will be a great atmosphere in a derby game with all to play for.

"It will be very competitive and hopefully we can learn from our experience against QPR where we played well, battled back but conceded in injury time.

"That was a big blow but we’ve got to be focused for the full 90, or even 95 minutes, and hopefully get the right result.

"Kenny Jackett has done tremendously well. I’ve known Kenny for many years and he had a great reputation as a coach at Watford and he is doing a great job at Millwall.

"They’ve had a fantastic start and are a very hard working team. The boy Morison has come in up front and done a terrific job for them.

"When you come to a club there are always derby games and Millwall was always a game people talked about here.

"You can see the response with what the attendance is expected to be.

"Millwall have sold all of their tickets and it is almost going to be a capacity crowd, so it will certainly be a great atmosphere on the day."

Kenny Jackett

"I’m very pleased to be in the Championship and competing with the likes of Crystal Palace because they’ve been a very good side over recent years.

"We’ve worked hard to close the gap on the likes of Crystal Palace and Charlton because when I came here the gap was wide.

"I want to be able to stand toe-to-toe and slug it out with them. I’m quite new to the division and it is both very close and very open.

"Quite often in this league the gap between the play-offs and relegation places isn’t actually that many points.

"That shows you the dividing line between the teams is always quite fine.

"In terms of Crystal Palace and the season they’ve had, it wouldn’t be for me to comment but they have a lot of good players and a good tradition.

"We have to always respect them but at the same time not fear them because we want to go and try to win games.

"There hasn’t been a Millwall v Crystal Palace game for a few years because we haven’t been in their division, so we’ve closed the gap on them in terms of status.

"Now in a one-off type of game we want to prove we can do well again, as we do in all of our games in the Championship.

"I’m very pleased we’ve got our full allocation of supporters going because it will be a terrific atmosphere at Selhurst Park on Saturday and I would expect a very big crowd.

"Our support since I’ve been at the club has been fantastic, they’ve always got right behind the players.

"It is a responsibility that the players have to always try and bring our supporters into play. Saturday will be no exception."

Tony Craig

"I had a year there and I won’t lie but when the fixture list came out it was the first game I looked for. It is coming up on Saturday and it is definitely a game I’m looking forward to.

"Things just didn’t quite happen for me when I was at Crystal Palace. I played 14 games for them but got injured and dislocated my shoulder. That kept me out for four months and they were on a good run by the time I recovered, so I just didn’t get back in.

"It was a massive relief to come back to Millwall, not just for myself and my family but my friends as well because people wanted to speak to me again as there is obviously a big rivalry between the two clubs.

"For me personally it is about playing games in the starting XI and thankfully I came back here and got that. I think we’ve sold more than 4,000 tickets and our supporters will be up for it, so it should be a good atmosphere.

"The fans can make a massive difference for us on the day. Against QPR they were there for us from the first whistle to the last and hopefully they will do the same thing again at Crystal Palace on Saturday."

Millwall - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
12th	10	3	4	3	13

Full league table

Millwall - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
6	0	4	2	4	10

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
18/02/2006	League	Millwall	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
03/12/2005	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Millwall
26/12/2003	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 1	Millwall
30/08/2003	League	Millwall	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
21/04/2003	League	Millwall	3 - 2	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Millwall 1-1 Palace

Saturday February 18 2006

Millwall: Marshall, Lawrence, Whitbread, Phillips, Craig, Ifil (Williams, 64), Elliott, Livermore, Dyer (Cogan, 65), May, Powel

Subs not used: Dunne, Doyle, Braniff

Bookings: Hughes

Goals: May 89

Palace: Kiraly, Boyce, Ward, Fitz Hall, Borrowdale, McAnuff, Hughes, Watson (Leigertwood, 82 ), Soares, Freedman (Andrews, 89 ), Morrison

Subs not used: Speroni, Fray, Grabban

Bookings: May, Whitbread

Goals: Watson 67