Ipswich v Palace

Ipswich Town entertain another of the pre-season promotion favourites in front of what is expected to be a bumper Boxing Day crowd as Crystal Palace visit Portman Road.

Vital Quotes:

Town boss Joe Royle wants to emulate Palace of two years ago, when a win at Portman Road on December 28th started of 21 games with only 4 defeats that saw them into the Prem:

‘That achievement is like a promotion template to the rest of us – proof of what a decent run in this division can do for a team. Palace were even further behind at the time than we are now and what they managed to do is an example to everyone else’

Ipswich Town Team News:

Midfielder Kevin Horlock is available again after a knee injury and could start against Crystal Palace. Manager Joe Royle has been hampered by injury problems all season but only Sam Parkin remains on the long-term injured list with a broken ankle.

Player to watch: Dean McDonald

Mini Mac is Back!

After a successfull loan spell with Hartlepool Dean is back in the town squad and looking to make the same impact at Ipswich as he did for his loan club

Crystal Palace Team News:

Palace defender Emmerson Boyce is suspended, while Danny Butterfield is out until the new year. Marco Reich and Jobi McAnuff could start after being used as substitutes in the defeat to Plymouth Argyle.

Player to watch: Andy Johnson

Just having had a £5.5m bid for him by West Ham turned down, AJ will be looking to prove he is worth more to Crystal Palace than the money, and trying to force his way into Svens World Cup plans

Match Facts & Stats

The all time record shows Ipswich to have the better record against Palace, picking up 26 wins, whilst there have been 21 draws, with the Eagles winning 19 of the 66 meetings so far. The Eagles have a good recent record at Portman Road, winning on their last two visits.

The last meeting between the sides came back in Decemeber 2003 at Portman Road when Palace won 3-1 thanks to goals from Andy Johnson (2) and Julian Gray after Jermaine Wright put Town ahead early on. The teams that day (28th December 2003) were:

Ipswich Town: Davis, Wilnis, Naylor, Santos, Richards, Wright (Bowditch, 75), Magilton, Bart-Williams (Reuser, 68), Westlake, Kuqi (Bent, 61), Counago.

Subs not used: Abbey, Miller.

Crystal Palace: Myhre, Butterfield, Popovic, Symons, Borrowdale, Routledge, Riihilahti, Hughes (Derry, 87), Gray, Johnson, Shipperley.

Subs not used: Fleming, Freedman, Black, Berthelin.

Bookings: Kuqi, Richards (Ipswich); Gray, Hughes (C Palace).

Attendance: 27,629

Referee: Steve Tomlin (E. Sussex)

Ref Watch:

Monday’s referee will be Andy Woolmer from Northamptonshire, with Simon Beck (Essex) and Gary Evetts Hertfordshire) as assistant referee’s and Glenn Hambling (Norfolk) as the fourth official.

Mr Woolmer is a National League referee, and last took charge of Ipswich earlier this season when he oversaw the 2-0 home defeat to Yeovil in the Carling Cup. Meanwhile, he has not previously refereed Crystal Palace.

So far this season, in 20 matches, Mr Woolmer has shown 69 yellow cards and 6 red cards.