November 30 2005

Andy Johnson

ANDY JOHNSON is in line to make his first start since coming back from injury in Crystal Palace's fourth round Carling Cup tie at Middlesborough.

JOHNSON has missed the last two-and-a-half months with a knee injury picked up against Reading.

He made his comeback from the subs' bench in Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Luton and boss Iain Dowie will give him some more match time on Wednesday night against Boro.

"Andrew won't play 90 minutes, but he will play a good portion of the game," said Dowie. "Monday's training session was the first time since the injury that he looked like the real AJ.

"He's getting his belief back. He has been desperately disappointed, and he was devastated to miss out on England games because of injury."

Marco Reich will undergo a hernia operation and will be out for at least two weeks. Mikele Leigertwood and Aki Riihilahti could feature after recovering from injury.

Middlesborough captain Gareth Southgate, who started his career with the Eagles, is not underestimating Championship Palace.

He said: "They've got a good squad and managed to hold on to most of their players when they went down last season.

"They certainly gave us a hard game at the Riverside last season when we won 2-1.

"It will be a tough night. They will see this match as a break from the league and another great opportunity to show they can compete against Premiership opposition.

"Against Liverpool in the last round they showed what they are capable of.

"The front two could well be ANDY JOHNSON and Clinton Morrison, who will both be a handful. They've both got pace and they will want to prove a point.

"It was nice the way ANDY was prepared to give Palace another season. He probably felt he wanted to give the club one more year to see if they could go straight back up, which was fantastic from him and a great coup for the club to keep him there. It shows how highly Iain Dowie is regarded."