Cardiff City v Palace

Cardiff City Stadium, Wednesday 3.00pm

Damien Delaney

Team news

Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney is suspended for the Boxing Day match after his red card against Huddersfield on Saturday. Danny Gabbidon replaced him in that game and will probably make his first Palace start against his old side. Jonny Williams (groin) is set for a return to the squad.

Cardiff defender Matthew Connolly is banned and midfielder Kadeem Harris (ankle) is a doubt, but Nicky Maynard (knee) is out for the rest of the campaign.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"This time of year is absolutely vital. It shows you if you've got strength in depth, so I'd like to help. I can't wait for January to help my squad and try to add one or two things that, I think, make us even more threatening.

"I can't wait to look at the options that we might have available. I've got some of my own, but we've got a wonderful scouting network and I'm delighted I've got access to that, but with every day that goes by, I'm getting closer to what I might need.

"The shopping list is, as it always is in football, very hopeful. It's very long and it's probably very expensive. I'm asking myself, have I been good enough this year to get what I want? Unfortunately, it will be a long, long week after Christmas day.

"The hotel has been great, but you cannot escape the fact that it is an impersonal environment. My wife has to leave the room to let the cleaners in each week, and you never know who might walk in using a master key.

"Everyone at the club has been brilliant to us and while everything has gone as smoothly as it could, the fact I am now settled can only be good for the players."

Malky Mackay

"Our supporters will turn out in force again and the atmosphere is going to be fantastic. The whole stadium will be rocking.

"Palace have quality players in a squad who have been together for a fair time. They are capable of causing problems, but we have plenty of quality as well.

"Our match at Leicester was a fantastic advert for Championship football. We produced quality on the ball, while the speed and tempo of the match was incredible."

Cardiff City - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
1st	23	15	2	6	47

Full league table

Cardiff City - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
8	6	1	1	13	6

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
22/09/2012	League	Crystal Palace	3 - 2	Cardiff City
28/04/2012	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Cardiff City
24/01/2012	League Cup	Cardiff City	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
10/01/2012	League Cup	Crystal Palace	1 - 0	Cardiff City
05/11/2011	League	Cardiff City	2 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 3-2 Cardiff City

Saturday September 22 2012

Palace: Speroni, Ramage (Ward, 29), Delaney, Blake, Moritz (Williams, 77), Dikgacoi, Bolasie (Moxey, 86), Jedinak, Parr, Murray, Zaha

Subs not used: Wilbraham, Garvan, Price, Goodwillie

Goals: Murray (pen 52, 62, pen 72)

Bookings: Zaha

Cardiff City: Marshall, Taylor, McNaughton, Connolly, Hudson, Whittingham, Cowie (Noone, 75), Gunnarsson, Bellamy (Mason, 82), Smith (Bo-Kyung, 88), Helguson

Subs not used: Lewis, Kiss, Velikonja, Turner

Goals: Gunnarsson (13), Cowie (15)

Bookings: McNaughton, Gunnarsson, Bo-Kyung