Another week, another must-win game. There is only so many times we can say that and not get the maximum points. Dennis Wise goes into this game with a misconduct charge over his head, and an injury list longer than Gus Poyet’s arms. It’s a struggle to see where the goals are coming from, I just hope they do.
An apathy filled preview, but I got the main bits and pieces.
Vital Quotes:
Crystal Palace defender Matt Lawrence knows full well from his experiences of Dennis Wise at Milwall, that the Leeds boss will have his team (if we’re able to put one out) fired up for this game:
‘I know Dennis very well and I know he’ll have them firing so it will be a hard game.’
The interesting bit that he does say will worry quite a few fans if they haven’t noticed this already however:
‘…nobody is ever too good to go down and we’ve seen people like Forest, Manchester City, Bradford and Sheffield Wednesday, who have all been in the Premiership, go down.’
Erm, eek!
Leeds captain Kevin Nicholl’s did his best to motivate the team:
‘There’s other teams who can be dragged in there with us. We’ve got big games and it’s massive for everyone at the club. We’ve got to do the business…’
Do the business? Surely the teams minds should be on football first.
Leeds United Team News:
We have a team left?
Sorry, I’ll be serious. One of the bigger dilemmas for Wisey this week is goalkeepers. With Graham Stack-a-backa he must work out whether to put him straight back in, or stick with Neill Sullivan.
Eddie Lewis may be returning, however Jonathon Douglas is out after injuring himself last week. The usual suspects are all still out.
Player to watch: Jonny Howson
He scored his first senior goal against Norwich City. Could this be the kid that saves our season?
Crystal Palace Team News:
I’m not sure I care but here goes:
Former Leeds ‘target’ (apparently) Gabor Kiraly keeps his place after impressing last week. Tom Soares is suspended and Captain Carl Fletcher is unavailable, Jobi McAnuff is also out. Danny Granville, Paul Ifill and Ben Watson all managed to crock themselves during training and are unlikely to feature.
Player to watch: Gabor Kiraly
He has been impressing recently, just like he did in the Premiership before a high-profile mistake. Come on Gabor give us a break!
Useless Facts
The real Crystal Palace was 560m in length, 5.3 times longer than the pitch at Elland Road.
Gabor Kiraly has only ever worn standard shorts for a football game twice, and that was because the referee told him he had to!
Our Gus’ full name is Gustavo Augusto Poyet DomÃnguez
Neil Sullivan was the unlucky goalkeeper lobbed from the halfway line by one David Beckham, during his time at Selhurst Park for Palace’s old lodgers, Wimbledon.
Ref Watch:
C.W. Oliver takes control of this one.
Match Prediction:
1-0 Leeds. Jonny Howson to score again and become the newest in the line of Leeds heroes.
Next Fixtures:
This just doesn’t get much better does it:
Cardiff City (A) 17/02
PR (H) 20/02
Wolves (A) 24/02