December 16 2004

Wayne Andrews

Wayne Andrews has set his sights on facing his old friend Rio Ferdinand at Old Trafford on Saturday to tell the England ace to stop sending him meaningless text messages!

The 27-year-old finally made his Palace debut against Blackburn last Saturday after being a unused substitute for six games, and now he hopes to play against Ferdinand for the first time since they were youngsters.

Andrews said: "I still speak to him and it will be good to play against him. I've known him since our South-East Counties days when he was at West Ham and I was at Watford."

But as well as hoping to cause the England defender problems on the pitch, Andrews is also looking to stop an off-pitch problem with Ferdinand.

Andrews said: "I spoke to Rio last Friday and he keeps texting me lyrics from songs for some reason, little snip pets from different pieces of music.

"I'll be sitting at home because I've got two little kids and he'll just be texting me rubbish and I'm thinking what's this for?' and this will be at eight-o'clock at night and I'll be thinking, I don't need this'.

"But to be fair, he makes me laugh, he's a funny guy."

The Palace striker is a late starter to Premiership football after a playing career which has included Watford, Oldham and Colchester.

But his manager is confident the bubbly frontman can cope with the demands at this level.

Iain Dowie said: "Wayne's a player I've had a lot of faith in, he's always got goals and he's a threat, he's got big pace, he's brave, and he's quite direct.

"The technical demands on him are very, very high so he's got to work on that and the rest of his attributes are very good."