It’s good that we are still in the hat. That’s the most important thing, we have got an important hurdle to jump away at Palace and of course there will be disappointment from everybody with regards not getting a big Premier Division. Coventry will be feeling the same but Middlesbrough is a tough game whatever happens. The only thing you want to try and do is get through to the next round and then you have got a chance to fight on, so we are pleased to be there.

It is business as usual, we have got a game to prepare for which is very important, it’s an extremely important three points.

The one message I want to put out is that I feel our fans can play a key part tonight. We would ask them to come out in their numbers and we would ask them to become very vocal because they can be a great help to us, especially in games like this where we need to go and put as much pressure on the opposition as we can. From a playing point of view we will obviously go and work as hard as we can to get the three points.

We will certainly be freshening up, we have got a lot of very good players coming back. Matty Hill is also included, Matty has come through training which is good and he is back in along with the two cup-tied lads, we also  have McKenna and Nugent back who were suspended. It’s looking nice and healthy.

We know that they have got good players and an excellent strikeforce as we saw on Saturday when they had Jon Macken on the bench. That was my on concern when I looked at our bench and I saw young Warren Beattie and Ashley Parillon and young David Hibbert starting his first game, although we are bringing players back it certainly won’t make the game any easier because we are going to have to work very hard to go and win three points. It is nice to have the depth of squad that we have for this game.

They have also got one or two changes that we can make with people like McAnuff, Ward, Macken and Hughes coming on to the park and they have also got a huge depth of squad and they can make many changes. Likewise we are just delighted that we can bring in a couple of fresh faces and some fresh legs.

The plan that we have got is to see how they can handle David Nugent. I think it is all about us, we know that they have got good players, many other clubs have, our target is to get three points to keep the good run going and make it 21 games without defeat. It will be very important if we can do that and push ourselves above Palace, it’s there for both teams with the position that we are in. It is all about getting our best players playing to their full potential and if we can do that then we know that we can cause a lot of problems.

It is just another game, it is preparing for a game of football with the personnel that we have got. Inbetween the two Palace games there is a very important away league match at Stoke that we have got to concentrate on.

At the end of the day, let’s not be kidded, it was a wonderful wonderful free-kick. It has actually worked three times. David Kelly was the first one to score for Motherwell Football club against Aberdeen at Pittodrie when I took him up to Scotland and he scored with the free-kick. Richard Cresswell was the second and now without a doubt the best finish was David Nugent. When it works it is nice but especially in a derby match, we work very hard at set-pieces as everybody knows and we will try and pull out one or two more before the end of the season. The one against Burnley was particularly pleasing because it is the quality of the keep-up from Graham Alexander and then the weight of pass over the wall but it is the sublime finish from David Nugent, to show that technique with the ball coming over the wall is a delight. I’m sure if that was Barcelona they would be showing that on many videos but with little Preston North End it may not be as such.