Palace have failed to win in their last 12 Premier League matches, including eight defeats, to slip down to 15th in the standings.
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Alan Pardew travels to one of his old clubs this evening as he looks to take Crystal Palace into the semi-finals of the FA Cup at the expense of Brian McDermott’s Reading.
Reading have reached this stage of the competition thanks to their 3-1 success over West Brom in the previous round, which was followed by wins against Rotherham United and Charlton Athletic in the Championship. Matej Vydra has scored six goals in this season’s FA Cup and is the tournament’s top scorer.
However, the defeat was not without controversy as Damian Delaney was adjudged to have fouled Christian Benteke in the penalty area in injury time, before the Belgian converted the resulting spot-kick.
But for Palace the incentive of reaching Wembley should be enough, and although league form hasn’t been good they are still risky.
Despite McCarthy’s poor performance, Hennessey’s place in Palace’s goal is far from secure, his form has been patchy at best this season and with fan-favourite and club-legend Julian Speroni waiting in the wings, Hennessey needs to show some improvement to keep his place between now and the end of the season.
And they have pedigree too.
It’s a big game for……
Alison Bender tells you why you should care about the upcoming FA Cup clash between Reading and Crystal Palace.
That said, my money will be going on this one breaching the 2.5 barrier at odds of [2.30].
The Royals made it to the semi finals of the competition last season but they were beaten 2-1 by eventual winners Arsenal at Wembley.
Skipper McShane and winger Robson-Kanu rested minor injuries as the Royals were beaten 3-1 at Huddersfield on Tuesday night, while striker Vydra is back in training after three weeks out with a hamstring problem.
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“He doesn’t go out there to make a mistake, no one does”, Ledley told the Croydon Advertiser.
