February 10 2007

Matt Lawrence

Dennis Wise rescued Matt Lawrence’s career but the Palace defender plans to repay him by pushing Leeds closer to relegation.

Lawrence was languishing in Millwall’s reserves until Wise took over at The Den in 2003 and made the centre-back a key player in his team.

Wise quit Millwall less than two years later and is now facing a desperate battle to save rock-bottom Leeds from the dreaded drop into League One.

Lawrence, who attended Wise’s 40th birthday bash recently, knows how his old boss feels after being part of the Millwall side who slumped out of the Championship last season.

But he insists there will no room for sentiment when Palace travel to Elland Road this afternoon looking to improve their play-off prospects.

Lawrence said: “Dennis resurrected my career at Millwall. Mark McGhee wasn’t playing me and then Dennis came in and picked me regularly.

“He put me in and I did a good job for him. I still speak to him now and again. I was at his 40th birthday party at a hotel in Chelsea the other day.

“I know what Dennis is like and I’m sure he will have them firing. They’ve got to win 50 percent of their games or they are going down.

“I’m definitely surprised by their position but when you have a few bad results and confidence starts to go anything can happen.

“I’d like to see them stay up for Dennis, but you don’t think about things like that. It’s just about the game and not who you are playing.”

Palace boss Peter Taylor knows all about Wise after signing him for Leicester and he insists the former Chelsea star is not to blame for Leeds’ current crisis.

Taylor said: “It’s not Dennis’s fault. He went to Leeds because he knows what a massive club it is, but they have had an awful lot of changes.”