West Bromwich Albion v Palace

The Hawthorns, Saturday 3.00pm

Action

Team news

On-loan forward Freddie Sears (ankle) and centre-back Claude Davis (hamstring) are doubts for the trip to the Midlands. Winger Victor Moses has a slight knee injury but should be able to play.

West Brom winger Jerome Thomas sits the game out after his sending-off in West Brom's Carling Cup defeat at Arsenal.

Chris Brunt is a doubt due to a knee problem, so Portuguese playmaker Filipe Teixeira is set to make his first league start of the season. Joe Mattock has an ankle injury, so Gonzalo Jara is lined up to replace him, while Marek Cech is also suffering with his ankle.

Quotes

Roberto Di Matteo

"All I'm interested in is to get the club back into the Premier League, to be honest. Records and awards don’t mean much to me. Probably, people expect us to win every game we go into but, as I always said – football is unpredictable."

Darren Ambrose

"It’s a massive challenge but I think that could be a good time to play them. They are going to be on a high and they are not going to be expecting us.

"We are going to be underdogs but I know what our lads are like and I think we can put in another good performance. Anyone can beat anyone in this league and I think we can beat anyone on our day."

West Bromwich Albion - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
1st	8	6	2	0	20

Full league table

West Bromwich Albion - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
6	5	1	0	18	6

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
12/03/2008	League	West Bromwich Albion	1 - 1	Crystal Palace
01/12/2007	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	West Bromwich Albion
14/03/2007	League	West Bromwich Albion	2 - 3	Crystal Palace
17/10/2006	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 2	West Bromwich Albion
01/02/2005	League	West Bromwich Albion	2 - 2	Crystal Palace

All time results

West Bromwich Albion's top scorer

Roman Bednar, Chris Brunt - 3 goals

West Bromwich Albion's bad boy

Graham Dorrans - 2 1

Ref watch

R J Booth

Last meeting

West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Palace

Wednesday March 12 2008

West Bromwich Albion: Kiely, Hodgkiss, Albrechtsen, Barnett, Robinson, Gera (Moore, 67), Greening, Koren, Brunt (Morrison, 40(Kim Do-Heon, 46)) , Phillips, Miller

Subs not used: Bednar, Martis

Goals: Phillips 30

Palace: Speroni, Lawrence, Hudson, Fonte, Hill, Soares (Morrison, 45), Watson (Hughes, 88), Fletcher, Derry, Moses (Scannell, 61), Scowcroft

Subs not used: Hills, Robinson

Goals: Moses 55