Championship Play-off Contenders - Crystal Palace

It’s been a storming finish to the season by Crystal Palace who, like Watford, can count on fairly recent experience of promotion via the play-offs and, in Neil Warnock, also have a manager who is well versed in dealing with the pressure at this stage of a campaign. The Eagles started the season with a 4:1 win at Southampton, but slumped in the drop-zone after winning just one more of their opening 16 Championship matches. The appointment of Warnock as successor to Peter Taylor brought about a fairly rapid improvement, with the former Sheffield United boss making some shrewd acquisitions both on permanent and loan deals, as well as displaying faith in the talented youngsters on the books. As happened a few years back under Iain Dowie, the momentum seems to be very much with Palace and they could take some stopping.

HOME AWAY
W D L F A W D L F A PTS Pos
9 9 5 31 23 9 8 6 27 19 71 5

Results against Play-off rivals:

Crystal Palace 1 (Scowcroft 81) Hull City 1 – 06 October
Crystal Palace 0 Watford 2 – 29 October
Crystal Palace 2 (Morrison 6, Hudson 85) Bristol City 0 – 19 January
Bristol City 1 Crystal Palace 1 (Hills 61) – 18 February
Watford 0 Crystal Palace 2 (Ifill 72, Moses 75) – 19 April
Hull City 2 Crystal Palace 1 (Sinclair 38) – 26 April

Top scorers:

Clinton Morrison 16
James Scowcroft 9
Tom Soares 6