Wayne Routledge could make his debut in black and white against his boyhood club when Crystal Palace come to town Wednesday (for whoever didn't read the transfer thread, he signed a few hours ago). Crystal Palace come in with a little bit of turmoil, as the Selhurst Park outfit entered administration earlier today, placing them two places above the drop zone from ninth in the league. Palace have a six-match unbeaten run, while our 14-match string was just snapped. We do however have a 12-match unbeaten mark in the league. (Hey, BBC, need a writer? ) Danny Simpson and Steven Taylor are out, while I doubt Shola will figure either having been subbed off after being subbed on during the FA Cup game at WBA on Saturday. Butt and Barton are also out and Ryan Taylor is suspended. Lovenkrands should be back, but who knows if he will play. Four goals in two games is tough to argue against though. For Palace, Sean Scannell, Paddy McCarthy and Darryl Flavahan are all out. Claude Davis and Clint Hill are both doubtful. They do have ex-Mag Darren Ambrose, who has 14 goals to his name. Other tidbits: - Palace have won at SJP just once in 37 years. - Newcastle have the last remaining unbeaten home record in the Championship. - Newcastle have gone four games without conceding a goal to Palace, winning three of them 2-0. My predicted lineup: Harper, Enrique, Kadar, Coloccini, Tavernier, Jonas, Smith, Nolan, Guthrie, Carroll, Lovenkrands. Subs: Krul, Tozer, Morris, LuaLua, Pancrate, Routledge, Ranger. Predicted result: 2-1.
ESPN Soccernet might have a live video link for this on their site. Because I'm at work and can't get that to work I am going to have to look for an audio link.
Williamson Starts! Kadar, too. Routledge doesn't. Boring midfield of Guthrie, Smith, Nolan, and Jonas. Lovencrans and Carroll up top, IMO our best pairing.
Victor Moses is apparently being held out of the lineup due to his impending departure from Crystal Palace.
Palace had ony 3 subs on the bench to start the game, and had to use one already. And we thought we had it bad... OK, we did have it bad.
Down to a single first choice defender and maintaining a clean sheet! Get ready for reality to bite us in the ass.
After the second half pretty much lulls everyone to sleep, Ambrose nearly equalizes with a diving header that hits the post and is cleared behind for a corner.
Woo-Hoo, Ranger off the mark. Nothing can stop us now. Except maybe having to play failed wingers as fullbacks.
I wonder why tozer didn't come on if the plan was to move kadar over to LB when enrique went out? Would have made a little more sense than pancake in the back four.
If we hadn't won this one it would have been a disaster, I really feel for Palace, what a shit situation. Probably going to go on and get relegated now, when they might just have been promoted.