Palace v Stoke City

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Ade Akinbiyi

Team news

He will keep the same team which is unbeaten in six league matches. Recent signing Mikele Leigertwood will retain his place on the bench.

Missing for Palace are Ben Watson (groin), Darren Powell (thigh) and Curtis Fleming (leg).

Potters' Ade Akinbiyi and John Eustace return to the side from suspension but Stoke will be without Clint Hill (ankle) and Kris Commons (heel). Richard Johnson is serving his suspension.

Stoke City - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
13th	30	12	7	11	43

Full league table

Stoke City - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	3	1	1	7	5

Full form table

Our home record v Stoke City

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
15	8	2	5	21	16

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
25/11/2003	League	Stoke City	0 - 1	Crystal Palace
26/04/2003	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 0	Stoke City
05/10/2002	League	Stoke City	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
15/04/1997	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Stoke City
07/09/1996	League	Stoke City	2 - 2	Crystal Palace

All time results

One to watch

Carl Asaba

Stoke City's top scorer

Carl Asaba - 7 goals

Stoke City's bad boy

John Eustace - 11 1

Palace old boys

Ade Akinbiyi

Whenever you mention stoke city to any palace fan the first man we think of is Ade Akinbiyi. The donkey that once graced the turf at Selhurst and produced precisely sod all is now doing the business for Stoke. The fact that hes not exactly lit up the pitch there makes him not my one to watch this week but I feel I had to mention him as he can be a threat and will be desperately wanting to score against us. Other threats for Stoke include Gifton Noel-Williams who can bang them in from pretty much any situation and Ed de Goey who, the season before last, was keeping them out for Chelsea and for some reason was released and snapped up by Stoke. He is a very good keeper and will be very hard to beat. I feel I should have a special mention for Darel Russell. He has played and started every match this season, so he is a resilient chap and must be doing something right. You don’t find many in the league with that kind of fitness level any more really. However, my one to watch this week is Carl Asaba. He has supported Palace since he was a child and still loves the club. Last season he said that it was painful to score against us and I’m sure it will be if he does again. This season he has played very well becoming Stoke’s current top scorer with 7 goals in a very competitive environment in their forward ranks. He can be a quick and agile forward and on his day can beat a lot of defences on his own. I do think that he can be coped with but he needs to be cut off quickly because he has the ability to run rings round Poppo, Hudson and co.

Last meeting

Stoke City 0-1 Palace

Tuesday November 25 2003

Stoke City: de Goey, Halls, Thomas, Hill, Marcus Hall, Hoekstra, Russell, Eustace, Richardson (Commons, 71), Akinbiyi (Iwelumo, 72), Noel-Williams (Asaba, 51)

Subs not used: Cutler, Clarke

Booking: Marcus Hall

Palace: Myhre, Borrowdale, Popovic, Fleming, Edwards, Hughes, Black (Routledge, 72),Derry, Butterfield, Johnson, Freedman (Symons, 87)

Subs not used: Berthelin, Granville

Bookings: Borrowdale, Edwards, Hughes, Popovic

Goal: Johnson 27