City v Palace. Match preview

Last updated : 03 February 2006 By Michael Morris
Cameron Jerome
Well a victory would be a huge result for Cardiff City. Firstly it would be another league double this season but more importantly it would close the gap on the final play off place to 1 point. Lose the game and that gap could be 7 points (depending on Preston's result).

City are likely to field an unchanged side but there are factors at play. Joe Ledley and Riccy Scimeca have minor ailments but both should be fine and Dave Jones must be considering Rhys Weston's position after a poor display against Millwall.

Jones also has Glenn Loovens fit again. I wonder if Jeff Whitley will feature. He missed the 16 completely on Tuesday but played for the reserves at Chelsea on Wednesday.

With Paul Parry being the only long term injured Jones has a full sqaud to choose from.

Crystal Palace ae looking to get back into the Premiership at the first attempt. They have been on a great run lately but the wheels wobbled slightly last Tuesday with a 2 - 0 defeat at Preston. Palace will be looking to make the gap between them and 7th place wider. Depending on results it could be as wide as 7 points after tomorrows game, a gap City can't afford to allow.

I think if Cardiff can come away without losing we will still be in the hunt. There is no midweek game for us next week but after that we play Stoke (h), Luton (a) and Hull (h) in 8 days. We should have a clearer picture after those games if we can maintain a decent challange.

City will meet up again with Jobi McAnuff tomorrow. He played the last 30 mins at Ninian Park earlier in the season when a Michael Ricketts goal earned a 1 - 0 win for City.

Palace's main threat will come from Andy Johnson. He has missed parts of the season through injury but still has 10 league goals. Ahead on his own at the top is Cameron Jerome with 14.

City's defence will have to be careful with Johnson, his ability to win penalties from very little is well known but he gets away with it time and time again.

Eagles bos Ian Dowie is not taking the game for granted. He told the Official Palace Website

"Cardiff will be another tough test of our credentials. They sold a few players in the summer, but then all of a sudden re-invested fairly heavily. Dave Jones has now got his side moving in the right direction, and they're very difficult to beat at the moment. They beat us 1-0 at their place earlier in the season, although I'm still scratching my head wondering how they managed it. We had some great chances to get back into the game but didn't take them, so we had no-one to blame but ourselves.

"In fairness they're probably a different proposition now, because they've got Cameron Jerome and Steven Thompson up front, who are on fire at the moment and will both be a real handful. David Jones will have been particularly pleased to hold onto Jerome, because for a while there it looked as though he might be leaving. It's a big fillip for the club and probably the right decision for the boy, because he'll only get the chance to develop by playing regular football.

Dave Jones has admitted promotion is on the minds of the club and the squad

'This season was about consolidation, but we've gone beyond that,' Jones told the Echo. 'We talk about promotion within the club, within the squad.

'We live it. We must embrace the dream. We do that because promotion is what we are aiming for. It's no good hiding from that. When I came to Cardiff City I was sold a dream. That dream is starting to come true with the news of Asda's involvement on the stadium retail development.

'It's what we had been waiting for and there is no reason the stadium should not happen now. Now we are hopefully going to get a brand new stadium with a very good team to play in it.

'We would all love to be in the Premiership by the time the stadium opens in 2008. But why wait until then. If it's possible why not now. There is still a long way to go and plenty of points to play for.'

Kick off at Selhurt Park is 3:00pm. Saturday 4th February, 2006.