September 26 2008

Neil Warnock

Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock takes his side to Ipswich on Saturday insisting "nobody gives us a prayer".

Palace have had a stutterting start to the new campaign with just one league victory from their opening seven matches.

They face a striker shortage with James Scowcroft and Alan Lee injured but Craig Beattie is ready to make his Eagles debut in attack after joining on a month's loan from West Brom.

“We go to Ipswich now, where nobody will give us a prayer and quite rightly so," said Warnock. "We’ve lost three away against Preston, Reading and Wolves. If you look at those three they are all near the top.

“I don’t think anybody gave us a chance at Wolves but if we’d have had a striker of any sort we would have won the game.

"We lost four strikers in six days. We can’t really overcome that. It’s hard enough to get one firing.

“We’ve just got to muck in for the next three games. We are bound to be a little bit apprehensive after the recent results. When you are underdogs you’ve got to start well. We can’t go there and just be defensive."

Warnock revealed defender Matt Lawrence has been playing through the pain barrier with a groin injury.

He said: “Matty has been a bit down. He’s got to have an injection in his groin which will put him out for one week. He’ll have it after the Forest game.

"He’s known about it for three or four weeks. He’s been carrying it and he has struggled training wise. It does take a bit out of your game."