Stoke City v Palace

Britannia Stadium, Monday 7.45pm

Iain Dowie

Team news

Manager Iain Dowie hopes to welcome back Ben Watson (calf), Dougie Freedman (back) and Marco Riech (ankle) to the squad.

Danny Granville (knee), Danny Butterfield (pelvis) and John Macken (back) are all on the Selhurst Park treatment table.

Stoke's Hannes Sigurdsson (hernia) and ex-Millwall player Peter Sweeney (Back) have overcome their injuries and are likely to start. Striker Mamady Sidibe is back from a nose injury.

Stoke City - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
15th	36	13	5	18	44

Full league table

Stoke City - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	1	2	2	3	4

Full form table

Our away record v Stoke City

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
21	5	8	8	27	20

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
27/08/2005	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Stoke City
14/02/2004	League	Crystal Palace	6 - 3	Stoke City
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

All time results

One to watch

Sambegou Bangoura

Stoke City's top scorer

Paul Gallagher - 10 goals

Stoke City's bad boy

Michael Duberry - 6 1

The former Standard Liege front man moved to the Britannia Stadium in the summer of ’69 (2005) for a record undisclosed fee. I still don’t understand how people can believe it’s a record fee when it remains undisclosed, but there we go.

Big Sam scored over 20 goals in 45 appearances for the Belgian side before crossing the Channel and moving to the hustle and bustle of Stoke. The skilful and powerful striker only made on appearance for Guinea in the African Cup of Nations but he slotted away and showed the international stage his capabilities.

The 23 year old has recently suffered a slump in form but he is certainly one to be aware of. He’s got a tally of 8 goals in 17 appearances – nobody can complain about that. When he does finally find he’s goal scoring boots, someone will feel the wrath.

Last meeting

Palace 2-0 Stoke City

Saturday August 27 2005

Palace: Kiraly, Boyce, Ward, Fitz Hall, Borrowdale, Soares, Leigertwood, Watson (Hughes, 71), McAnuff (Riihilahti, 75), Macken (Morrison, 75), Johnson

Subs not used: Andrews, Speroni

Goals: Johnson 44, Johnson 85

Stoke City: Simonsen, Buxton, Duberry, Hoefkens, Broomes, Chadwick (Wilkinson, 86), Brammer, Henry, Kolar (Harper, 45), Junior (Dyer, 78), Sidibe

Subs not used: de Goey, Taggart

Bookings: Broomes