Southampton v Palace

St Mary's Stadium, Monday 1.00pm

Wilfried Zaha

Team news

Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha returns from his one game suspension but midfielder Mile Jedinak is banned. Centre-half Dekel Keinan (ankle) and Dean Moxey (knee) are both doubts.

Southampton midfielder Richard Chaplow hopes to make a return to the side after sitting out the last three matches due to a knee injury. Striker Lee Barnard (ankle) is still sidelined.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"Deep down, the back of my mind tells me we have a small chance [of making the play-offs]. But, in the front of my mind, I have to be realistic and say we are growing and we might be growing too quick in terms of being contenders but we will give it a go.

“I have to be realistic to the lads and be honest and say be patient and one day hopefully we will get there.

"Right now, we are not an established enough Championship team in terms of flair players or individuals – we are not a QPR of last year.

“We are a hard working team that has come from the bottom three last year and we are progressing in a certain way and we will stick to that."

Nigel Adkins

"Crystal Palace will come full of confidence and will be a tough nut to crack - there's a nice little Christmas pun for you - because they defend well in numbers.

"I know from speaking to Dougie (Freedman) when he first took over his main concern was to stop conceding goals because they were in a relegation battle. They have come up with a way of playing that makes them very hard to beat because of the defensive way that they have set up.

"We have watched several of their games and already played them this season in the Carling Cup so we know what a good season they are having.

"We are a very good side at St. Mary's though. Our supporters will have to be patient with us, and we will work hard to get the win.

"We score more goals than anyone in the division and we pass the ball successfully in the right areas of the pitch, so if we can do that on a consistent basis then Rickie Lambert along with David Connolly, Adam Lallana, Guly do Prado, Steve De Ridder and Richard Chaplow will continue to score goals."

Danny Butterfield

"When we played together at Palace, I grew to respect Dougie a lot. He was a good analyst of the game; he had strong opinions and you listened to him

"I'm not surprised he's doing well as a manager. He's got them well organised, he's made them determined and hard to beat. They keep a lot of clean sheets yet they have some exciting young players who can be a real threat on the break.

"When we played them in the Carling Cup we put out a mixed team and so did they. It will be different though when we're both at full strength."

Southampton - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
1st	22	13	5	4	44

Full league table

Southampton - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
6	2	2	2	8	7

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
25/10/2011	League Cup	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Southampton
13/04/2009	League	Southampton	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
08/12/2008	League	Crystal Palace	3 - 0	Southampton
02/02/2008	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Southampton
11/08/2007	League	Southampton	1 - 4	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 2-0 Southampton

Tuesday October 25 2011

Palace: Price, McCarthy, Ramage, Moxey, Clyne, Williams (Gardner, 82), Ambrose (Jedinak, 75), Dikgacoi, O'Keefe, Parr (Zaha, 84), Easter

Subs not used: Speroni, Iversen, Pedroza, Dorman

Goals: Ambrose (73), Easter (pen 82)

Southampton: Bialkowski, Harding, Butterfield, Martin, Reeves (Do Prado, 80), Ward-Prowse, Holmes (Lambert, 77), Cork, Schneiderlin, De Ridder, Forte (Barnard, 69)

Subs not used: Moore, Richardson, Dean, Dovey

Bookings: Schneiderlin