January 2 2002

Selection headache

Trevor Francis is faced with a team selection problem for Saturday's FA Cup game against Newcastle.

Tommy Black will be suspended for the Toon Army clash, while on-loan players Trevor Benjamin and Christian Edwards have not been given permission to play by their clubs.

Latest signing Curtis Fleming cannot play either. The FA has a ruling which stops players from playing in FA Cup matches if they have signed to a club within seven days or less of a fixture.

There is also a problem with the amount of non EU/EEA citizens in the squad. There is a maximum of three that can be selected for an FA cup match - Palace currently have four: Alex Kolinko, Jovan Kirovski, Tony Popovic, and Andrejs Rubins. Francis will have to drop one of these from the squad which travels up north.

If the match on Saturday ends in a draw, then a replay will take place at Selhurst Park on Wednesday January 16.