Palace v Peterborough United

Selhurst Park, Saturday 12.45pm

Owen Garvan

Team news

Midfielder Owen Garvan's fitness will be checked on after he played his first match in four months against Millwall on Tuesday following a knee injury.

Jon Williams has recovered from his knee problem and is in contention after coming off the bench at the Den. Jonathan Parr is sidelined for the season due to ankle ligament damage.

Peterborough duo Mark Little (hamstring) and Danny Swanson (knee) are set for a return to the side after overcoming injury.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"People can talk about stats but we are not the only team to not be winning. Some of them are much worse than us. You have not got to be a genius to work out that if we play like that [against Millwall], it is not long in coming.

"All I can say is that they are giving me everything. That is all you can ask. I believe we will be good enough to get there. The last point you need is always the hardest. I have been there before but these lads haven't. They are buoyed as they thought they played well.

"It was a terrific away performance against Millwall. We looked a unit, looked solid and the two wide men were a threat. Unfortunately we didn't quite get that goal.

"We'd have love to have done it but Millwall put up a stern fight. That was as good a game for this time of the season as I think you'll see. We both needed something and I think both sets of players showed that. I can't ask for much more than a ball going in their net.

"You learn to deal with worry ahead of these games. Making the lads believe in themselves is where I earn my money - worrying is just an occupational hazard. Every day of your life you put yourself up to win and you might not but you can only do the right things.

"Losing isn't nice but Crystal Palace have been in the top six almost all season. We have good players, we're a good team and we must remember that.

"All I can do is put out a team and a strategy to win the game. What I've found recently is that certain players are absolutely vital to the unification of the team.

"Mile Jedinak has really been missed for two games - I didn't know how vital he was at first so having him back from suspension will be huge. Peterborough will be dangerous because they need the points.

"But it's up to us to hurt some of their weaknesses and I think this game will suit us because they'll come at us instead of us having to break down two banks of four, as we've struggled against that."

Yannick Bolasie

“This is my first season at Palace but to go to the Premier League, I don’t know, words wouldn’t be able to explain that. It’s on the verge of being a great season, but it’s not a great season yet, if you know what I mean.

“If we win on Saturday we’ll go clear and if we draw, technically we should still be in the play-offs. We still need to finish the job now. I’m just looking to get Palace in the play-offs now.”

Darren Ferguson

“Crystal Palace were excellent when they played at our place earlier this season. They beat us 2-1 which flattered us. They’ve struggled a bit lately and they looked nervous when I watched them the other night, but I would expect them to fly at us from the start tomorrow.

“There will be 20,000 in the ground at Selhurst Park and that will create a fantastic atmosphere. We will have to manage the game in the first 20 minutes by keeping the ball and making sure their dangermen are denied service.

“Palace have a top quality squad. They have Zaha, Bolasie, Phillips, Dobbie and Wilbraham who can all hurt you, but we have players who can hurt them as well.

“My players are very relaxed - in fact they’re over-relaxed - but I am very confident they will cope with the occasion. We have experience in the shape of Grant McCann and Gaby Zakuani and they will help the others if they need it.

“The points total is irrelevant. If you finish in the bottom three, you are one of the three worst teams in the division and you will deserve to go down.

“I will be making that very point to the team before the game. We have done brilliantly to get ourselves into this position after such an awful start to the season, but it will count for nothing if we don’t finish the job off tomorrow.”

Dwight Gayle

“We’ve done so well to get where we are, it would now be a crushing blow to go down, but we are not thinking about going down at all. We will take a lot of confidence to the last game as we know it’s one we can win.

“Beating Sheffield Wednesday last weekend was massive for us as it showed what we can do under pressure. We had to win that game and we did. It wasn’t a pretty game, but we battled and deserved the points.

“Crystal Palace will play a different style of football and we’ll find out if it suits us when we play them I guess! They have good players though like Zaha so it’s won’t be easy for us. But we’ve beaten lots of good sides recently so we can beat one more.”

Peterborough United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
21st	45	15	9	21	54

Full league table

Peterborough United - current form

Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against
8	4	3	1	10	8

Full form table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
10/11/2012	League	Peterborough United	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
03/03/2012	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 0	Peterborough United
06/08/2011	League	Peterborough United	2 - 1	Crystal Palace
30/01/2010	League	Crystal Palace	2 - 0	Peterborough United
31/08/2009	League	Peterborough United	1 - 1	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Peterborough United 1-2 Palace

Saturday November 10 2012

Peterborough United: Olejnik, Little (Ferdinand, 84), Alcock, Brisley, Bostwick, McCann, Knight-Percival, Newell, Tomlin (Swanson, 63), Boyd, Berahino (Barnett, 67)

Subs not used: Zakuani, Sinclair, Mendez-Laing, Day

Goals: McCann (6)

Bookings: Boyd, Knight-Percival

Palace: Speroni, Ramage, Ward (Wilbraham, 80), Delaney, Garvan (Moritz, 74), Dikgacoi, Bolasie (Blake, 84), Jedinak, Parr, Murray, Zaha

Goals: Moritz (80), Dikgacoi (82)

Bookings: Murray