Preston North End Vs Crystal Palace
Coca-Cola Championship Saturday 16th August 2008
Following Tuesday's win over Chesterfield in the League Cup, Alan Irvine will be hoping he can continue the exorcision of Preston's early season ghost by making it three wins out of three against Palace on Saturday.
Preston have not won their opening two league fixtures since the 2000/2001 season and so will be wanting to put that unwanted record to bed by seeing off Neil Warnock's Crystal Palace. Palace visit Deepdale on the back of an unconvincing 2-1 win of Hereford United in the League Cup and with the mindset of getting their first championship win of the season. Having had a strong end to their last campaign, Warnock will be hoping he can continue where they left off in a bid to get a head start over their promotion rivals.
Previous Meetings
Palace's last trip to Deepdale ended in a 1-0 win for the visitors after which, North End went on a seven game unbeaten run which proved to be instrumental in their survival. Palace had already beaten North End of course as they saw off what was then Paul Simpson's side in a 2-1 win. Youl Mawene had put the Preston ahead on 36 minutes only for Morrison and Hill to have put Palace ahead just before half time.
Preston have faced Palace a total of 38 times with Palace having the advantage with 15 wins over Preston's 12.
Head to Head
The pace and trickery of Palace's Victor Moses could cause problems for the Preston full backs having shown what he can do last season. Moses, who proved to be a revelation for Neil Warnock last season has showed that, despite being just 17, he can mix it up with the best of them. However, with Michael Hart not being short of pace himself, it should be an interesting battle to say the least.
Team News
Striker Chris Brown isn't expected to feature and with Karl Hawley putting in a solid performance on Tuesday night; it will be a tough call for Irvine who of course may revert back to the front two of Mellor and Whaley who started at Ipswich.
Ross Wallace may make his full league debut after impressing against Chesterfield.
For Palace there are no new fresh injury worries so the same team that played on the opening day is expected to be fielded at Deepdale.