Palace v Reading

Selhurst Park, Wednesday 8.00pm

Action

Team news

Palace defender Matt Lawrence is in contention for a starting spot after recovering from a hamstring injury.

Left-back Lee Hills, winger Kieron Cadogan and forward Stern John are back in the squad after being cup-tied for the Sunday's against Aston Villa.

Reading striker Shane Long is suspended after getting shown a red card during the FA Cup tie against West Brom. Gylfi Sigurdsson is doubtful due to a foot injury.

Quotes

Brian McDermott

"I went to watch them play Wolves just after all this had come out. The crowd were really up for it and it’s galvanised the club. I think Neil Warnock is really good at that.

"They have the 'us against the world syndrome' and Neil does that very well. Sometimes these things can work for you if you manage it right. You can really get a good spirit going.

"What we have done in the last three games is put ourselves back in the pack and we want to keep the run going. There’s not much between us and 12th so it’s really tight.

"I saw Palace play Villa and it was a really good game. It was similar to ours in that they were three minutes away from winning when they gave a goal away.

"They’ll think they were unfortunate not to have got through, as we were. But we won’t really look at the draw until after West Brom next week."

Shaun Derry

"This match is a huge huge game for us, it is the league where this club is going to survive. In the short term the money coming in from the cup is excellent but we need to be a Championship side.

"Reading are one of the teams around us and if we can get three points it takes us even closer to Coventry who we play on Saturday and that is another huge game.

"Make no bones about it, every single game the club are in at the moment is huge in different kinds of situations. It's massive for the club to progress in the cup but this is the bread and butter of it all."

Reading - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
22nd	29	8	8	13	32

Full league table

Reading - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
6	3	0	3	7	11

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
08/12/2009	League	Reading	2 - 4	Crystal Palace
21/03/2009	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 0	Reading
30/08/2008	League	Reading	4 - 2	Crystal Palace
20/01/2006	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Reading
13/09/2005	League	Reading	3 - 2	Crystal Palace

All time results

Reading's top scorer

Gylfi Sigurdsson - 9 goals

Reading's bad boy

Ivar Ingimarsson - 3 1

Palace old boys

Jobi McAnuff, Jay Tabb (youth)

Last meeting

Reading 2-4 Palace

Tuesday December 08 2009

Reading: Federici, Ingimarsson, Bertrand (Sigurdsson, 68), Pearce, McAnuff, Tabb, Kebe, Cisse, Matejovsky, Gunnarsson (Robson-Kanu, 46), Rasiak

Subs not used: Mills, O'Dea, Hamer, Karacan, Cummings

Goals: Pearce 31, Sigurdsson 80(pen)

Palace: Speroni, Hill, Butterfield, Fonte, Ertl, Clyne, Ambrose (N'Diaye, 81), Derry, Danns, Moses (Sears, 89), Andrew (Lee, 65)

Subs not used: Carle, Smith, Davis, Scannell

Bookings: Butterfield, Clyne, Moses

Goals: Clyne 7, Ambrose 45, Moses 45, Moses 88