Sheffield United v Palace

Bramall Lane, Saturday 12.45pm

Story so far

This weekend sees Neil Warnock return to his boyhood team, the team he managed for over 7 years, the team he dragged into the Premiership and the team that he resigned from after relegation.

When your manager leaves, the last thing you want to read is, "Sheffield United have called a press Conference to unveil Bryan Robson as the new manager".

It's a complete mystery as to why Robson actually has a managerial job. He has no kind of decent reputation with supporters - I'm not even sure that he has much support from Chairmen.

So how has Robson, in only his fourth managerial job, actually doing at Sheffield? Well he may as well consider a weekly visit to the Post Office of a Saturday in the near future as I doubt mid-table will be an acceptable league position for the United Board.

It's expected that this will be a tasty fixture - Sky moved the game for a 12:45 kickoff 5 minutes after the appointment of Warnock was announced. Hopefully the form of Palace and Warnock's former players will give us an entertaining match.

Team news

Paul Ifill is set to face his former side after recovering from his thigh injury. The winger came off the bench and scored in the Boxing Day win over Coventry City and could start depending on his fitness.

Jose Fonte is fit again after a thigh complaint but Paul Dickov (toe) and MARK KENNEDY (Achilles) are doubtful.

Sheffield United striker James Beattie is out of the clash with damage to his knee ligaments. He was substituted against Blackpool on Boxing Day and faces six weeks out.

Rob Hulse is ready to replace Beattie up front and make his first start since fracturing his leg in March.

New signing Gary Speed won't be available until the transfer window re-opens next week.

Quotes

"I'm really looking forward to coming back because everyone knows what I think of Sheffield United and, with the way things happened at the end, I never really got a chance to say goodbye.

"I was there a long while and although myself and my family had some bad times they were easily outweighed by the good ones.

"So yes, of course it's going to be emotional, but I'm not going to lie and say this wasn't the first game that I looked for on the fixture list when I took over at Palace.

"I can honestly say that I've never worked so hard in my life as I did during my first three weeks here.

"I couldn't see where a goal, never mind a win, would come from.

"It was never a case of restoring the lads' confidence, more of getting them to buy into my way of doing things.

"I want them to play with a smile on their face, to enjoy themselves and now they're doing that.

I have respect for the job that Neil did here, this is a good club with a good structure, and Neil helped with that," said Robson yesterday. "But I would remind the fans that it took Neil five years before he got promoted and they are expecting me just to turn it around straight away.

"It takes time to structure things the way you want to structure it and Neil Warnock has got a slightly different style of play to what I would want to play.

"I need the fans to give me a bit of time and to get behind the team. To build a club you need everybody pulling together,"

"I found it amazing that fans were having a go at me when we had players missing chances," he reflected. "But that sort of reaction does make me more determined to get it right.

"Steve McClaren was in a similar situation when he took over from me at Middlesbrough. I had taken them to three cup finals and got them promoted and we had stayed in the Premiership for five years.

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Sheffield United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
14th	24	8	7	9	31

Full league table

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Sheffield United - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
5	1	3	1	2	6

Full form table

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Our away record v Sheffield United

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
23	8	5	10	21	26

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
22/09/2007	League	Crystal Palace	3 - 2	Sheffield United
30/04/2006	League	Sheffield United	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
05/11/2005	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 3	Sheffield United
07/02/2004	League	Sheffield United	0 - 3	Crystal Palace
26/08/2003	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Sheffield United

All time results

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One to watch

Keith Gillespie

Keith Gillespie is one of the reasons Paul Ifill didn't get much of a chance in the Premiership with Sheffield United.

He's a right winger with a wealth of International and Premiership experience, coming through the ranks at Manchester United alongside Scholes, Giggs, Beckham and co. However, he was soon off to Newcastle in a swap deal for Andy Cole, where he was involved in numerous European games.

The Larne born winger usually notches up a few goals, although is hardly prolific. Palace will need to be wary of his delivery.

Ref watch

A D'Urso.

Last meeting

Palace 3-2 Sheffield United

Saturday September 22 2007

Palace: Speroni, Butterfield, Hudson, Cort, Craig, Soares, Fletcher, Watson, Green (Freedman, 55), Scowcroft (Idrizaj, 86), Dickov (Hughes, 83)

Subs not used: Flinders, Lawrence

Goals: Soares 60, Fletcher 70, Watson 89 (pen)

Bookings: Idrizaj

Sheffield United: Kenny, Bromby (Webber, 80), Morgan, Cahill, Naysmith, Gillespie (Stephen Quinn, 74), Montgomery, Tonge, Armstrong, Beattie, Stead

Subs not used: Alan Quinn, Lucketti, Sharp

Goals: Hudson 48 (og), Beattie 76

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