Five Year Plan fanzine editor James Daly tells us about Crystal Palace’s resurgence under Dougie Freedman, which doesn’t include away wins.

Palace have won just one away game since March 2010. Can you explain why that is the case?
In a word: no. In a sound: humph. In a smilie: :S

No one can quite work out why the Eagles have been so bad on the road of late. Especially as during that period home form has been absolutely brilliant. We went some 14 hours without conceding a goal at home but continued to be as cutting as Dane Cook’s wit away from home, which can only lead me to one conclusion: it was the cheerleaders wot won it for us. The Crystals were introduced at home games back in November and we’ve only lost two at Selhurst since they’ve been here dancing and prancing around before kick-off and at half-time. We really should start bringing them on the road.

Will Palace come for the win on Saturday or sit back and accept a draw?
The fans will be happy for a draw, but Dougie Freedman likes his teams to attack. They will probably start with four across midfield with Wilf Zaha on the right seeing as Darren Ambrose and Kagisho Dikgacoi are both out injured. Sean Scannell will be partnered up front by Jermaine Easter unless Glenn Murray has recovered from injury.

How has Dougie Freedman taken to management since being appointed in January?
Like a Scotsman to a pint of Irn Bru: with unwavering ease. It may only be his first job but the Doog composes himself like a seasoned pro, talks plenty of sense in post match pressers, makes the right substitutions, and has made shrewd signings in the transfer market. Essentially, it’s a common sense approach to management, and long may it continue.

What changes has Freedman made since Palace came to Hull for the penultimate game of last season?
Not many. The core of the team is still there. That he has managed to convince the big names to stay is another reason we are all loving the Doog at the moment. Julian Speroni is still in goal, Nathaniel Clyne could be at right-back if he wasn’t injured, the same goes for Darren Ambrose. Paddy McCarthy, Owen Garvan and David Wright should all feature. Freedman’s approach is a long-term one so don’t expect many major changes.

Tell us about Wilf Zaha.
Erm… he’s rubbish. Totally overrated. You shouldn’t worry about him at all.

No, seriously, he’s ace. Bags of skill, lightning pace. As with most 18-year-olds he’s still pretty raw but in the first few games of this season we’ve started to see his decision-making improve and he’s getting that ball into the box after just one trick and not the 20 he was trying to do last season. Could be a big season for Wilf.

Who are the other danger men in your team?
It’s all about Sean ‘Big Scanz’ Scannell at the moment. He’s had lots of injury problems but he’s beefed up, and looks uber confident. See his kung-fu scissor kick against Coventry in midweek. He is looking very much like a PFA-winner already, and yet still breezes around the pitch with all the coolness of a pop star.

James Daly is editor of Crystal Palace fanzine Five Year Plan

Michael Normanton, co-editor of The Square Ball, fills us in on the latest developments at City’s opponents tonight, Leeds United.

What’s the picture at Leeds United at the moment?
Pretty depressing to be perfectly honest! Over the summer we’ve spent £7million on corporate facilities and £100k on the team.

There doesn’t appear to have been much squad strengthening at Leeds this summer. Will deals be done before the end of the month or is there no transfer kitty?
There will be a few more transfers but I don’t expect any serious money to be spent. Andy Keogh just arrived on loan and I would expect any future transfers will be along similar lines: essentially, the players that nobody else wants and are therefore available for a low price/free. We’re shopping in the “reduced to clear” section.

Are the board behind Simon Grayson? Are the fans?
Officially Bates is still behind Grayson, but the cracks are showing. Despite a summer with very little investment in the team and several first team players departing (Schmeichel, Johnson and Kilkenny) Ken continues to talk about how he expects us to challenge for promotion. How he expects to do this while cutting resources from an already over-achieving side is known only to him. It seems to me that he is setting up Grayson to fail; expect him gone by Christmas.

As for the fans, I’d say on the whole we are behind Grayson. He’s made some mistakes and continues to confuse people with his selection of certain players, but overall he’s done a great job for us. The fans also recognise that he does it with one hand tied behind his back. In the opening games there have been very clear anti-Bates chants followed by pro-Grayson ones. It’s like fans are unwilling to criticise Grayson because they know he is the smaller part of the problem.

Have your two defeats in the league so far come as a surprise or were things not shaping up well in pre-season?
Pre-season was a fairly low-key affair this year. After talk of playing Benfica we eventually ended up going to Scotland before games against Sheffield Wednesday, Rochdale and Newcastle. We actually won all but the Sheffield Wednesday game (a 1-1 draw) but I don’t think it fooled anyone. On paper the squad is no stronger than last year and with both Becchio and Somma out with medium-long term injuries the first 11 is definitely weaker. Leading us on nicely to…

Ex-Tiger Billy Paynter has scored just once since joining Leeds from Swindon a year ago. Is he not making the grade?
Ah, Big Billy. Wild Bill. Billy Barndoor. He looked brilliant against us as we struggled out of League One, but since arriving he’s been a huge disappointment. He’s never cut it in the Championship before and I don’t expect him to start now. He’s currently “injured” and nobody is quite sure when he will be back. I don’t think anyone really cares.

City are now undefeated in all but one of our last 19 away games. Will Leeds be able to break us down or will we be taking more points home?
After an opening day spanking at Southampton (the 3-1 defeat flattered us enormously) we performed much better against Boro. At 11 v 11 and 10 v 10 we were the better side, but unfortunately the referee got the better of us. There wasn’t a bad tackle in the entire game yet Anthony Taylor managed to send three players off. The arrival of Keogh means we do at least have some options up front, although the suspensions of Gradel and Howson could cost us. We really need to get the points tonight given we have trips to West Ham and Ipswich coming up next, but I’m not especially optimistic.

Michael Normanton is co-editor of The Square Ball.

Justin Johnson of Blues-Online tells us all about Ipswich Town ahead of Saturday’s game.

After the recent signings, is this truly Paul Jewell’s team now or is he still rebuilding?

We’ve seen quite a bit of transfer activity in the summer, although Paul has said on a number of occasions that we are still short of a few players, most notably at centre back where we currently only have three in the entire squad after Gareth McAuley turned down a new contract. I believe a holding midfield player along with a backup keeper are still very much on the wanted list.  I would expect a few more players to move on as well, such as Shane O’Connor who clearly is surplus to requirements.

What have been your thoughts on Jewell since he took over in January? Is he the right man for the job?

He’s been a breath of fresh air. Some had their doubts when he was appointed but for me personally he was a good choice. Roy Keane was without any question a complete disaster for our club; I had bad feelings from the day he was appointed and unfortunately I was proven right. But Jewell has had a calming influence on the dressing room, players now appear to be able to express themselves and are noticeably less on edge than they were under Keane. So far everything I have seen has indicated the club is recovering and getting back on track. The dressing room is much more relaxed with players feeling valued and no one trying to be forced out unlike this time last year. So for the first year in a while, I’m actually positive about our chances.

Did you get a good deal when Connor Wickham was sold to Sunderland?

I think we did. Connor is without doubt an outstanding talent who could well go on to be a big player for years to come. However he’s not the finished article by any means at the moment and the cash is far more needed to spend on players for the here and now. One player simply can’t make a team and do it on his own, let alone a player at Connor’s age, no matter how promising.  Losing Gareth McAuley and David Norris on frees were big blows, but really we left it so late to offer deals to them that they were always going to try and seek a better deal elsewhere, and we ended up losing two of our better players last term.

Jimmy Bullard was your player of the season despite only playing 16 times. How good was he at this level? Were there any negative aspects to his spell at Ipswich?

Quite frankly I think that tells you all you need to know about our season last time and how happy we were! To be fair though at risk of repeating myself it was widely recognised that there had been a tense, on-edge kind of atmosphere at the club under Keane who was regularly falling out with many of the squad. Jimmy had a good impact both on and off the pitch, his joker and lively personality I strongly believe managed to lift the spirits of what was an unhappy dressing room and a bunch of players that looked scared to death prior to January. He clearly has a lot to offer at this level, and I would have loved to have had him back here for the new campaign. He scored several inspirational goals for us and clearly is a top player at this level, and the bright spot on what was for me, the most disappointing season of recent years. I enjoyed last year less than our relegation from the Premiership in 2002.

A more popular connection with Ipswich for Hull City fans is Damien Delaney. What role does he play in your team? What do the fans think of him?

I think Delaney has been one of the only Roy Keane signings that I could call a success. He’s been playing at centre back for pretty much all of his time at the club and found a good partnership with Gareth McAuley last season and most fans would consider him as a solid rock at the back. He did, however, have a particularly poor game against Norwich last December and was sent off, then got frozen out for a few weeks. As was so often the case with many players he had a reported falling out with Keane, who it was later revealed stopped speaking to Delaney and later still, that Delaney blamed Keane for his arrest for speeding, calling him unreasonable as he was scared to be late due to the boss’s reaction.

Like Hull City, Ipswich were beaten at home by League Two opposition in the League Cup on Tuesday. What went wrong?

It was apparent for a few days prior to the game that we would not be taking the competition too seriously this year. We made nine changes from the win against Bristol and we put out what was basically a mixture of inexperienced youngsters and fringe players. Three of the players on the bench were very young and were awaiting their first team debut, one of whom was 15 and the club had to get permission from the lad’s father to include him in the squad. Really though I’m not that fussed, we need to concentrate on the league this season as that’s our bread and butter.

Ipswich got off to a better start in the league, winning 3-0 at Bristol City. Could that have been a false dawn or do you have genuine aspirations for this season?

I honestly have positive thoughts for the new season ahead. We’ve added some experienced players such as Ivar Ingimarrson and Lee Bowyer to the squad, whilst addressing two of our bogey positions of recent years, namely being a consistent goalkeeper in David Stockdale from Fulham and a regular out-and-out goalscorer in Michael Chopra. The promise and excitement of wide midfielder Jay-Emmanuel Thomas, who clearly has promise although lacking in consistency, also excites many fans. It’s still very early to know for sure, however, and as mentioned previously I feel we’re still 2-3 players short of having the strength I would like, but if we get them a top six finish should be on the cards.

Justin Johnson is editor of Blues-Online.

Peter Gillatt of Blackpool FC fansite It’s Not Orange, It’s Tangerine! previews tonight’s match.

How did you find last season in the Premier League? Was it all it is cracked up to be and somewhere you’d like to see Blackpool permanently, or do you feel back at your level now?

It was simply fantastic especially as the media didn’t love us when we came up – they described us as the worst team ever to grace the Premier League before a ball was kicked. When Michael Owen finished off our resistance at Old Trafford on survival Sunday there was a passing sadness (and it would have been wonderful to stay up) that we may never get another chance to grace this level again. But you do have to look at how far we’ve come. Four sided ground, financially secure, great manager. A club that has challenged not only on the pitch, but thanks to Holloway, off it as well. Whether you like it or not he at least used his elevated status to ask important questions about the game, how it is run and where the power lies. The good news? No one will call us ‘a breath of fresh air’ anymore.

How have Blackpool dealt with relegation from the Premier League and rebuilt for the Championship?

With parachute payments, we are back in the Championshi, with a far better ground and a bigger fan base. This year has been positive – for us, for the club, for football. We won friends because we played good football, with skill, character and heart. The media focussed on Charlie Adam, but in fact real fans will also speak of Vaughan, Evatt, Baptiste, Gilks, Campbell, Taylor-Fletcher and a host of others who have thrilled us. Can we play football? Ask Liverpool, or Newcastle, or Spurs.

What are your aspirations for this season? Are you likely to be challenging for promotion?

Of course this team has now changed. Some have gone, and they have been wonderful. Others will step up to the plate. The conversations about Holloway’s transfer budget will doubtless take an interesting twist - throwing money around has never been our style, but the truth is that we are far better placed now than we were two years ago. That two years has given us memories beyond compare, and for that I am enormously grateful, but I’m looking forward to the new season: loads of new players; the luxury of not being the novelty item wherever we go. It’s going to be very enjoyable and I’m genuinely excited to be returning to league in which I feel we can challenge.

How has your pre-season gone?

Pants to be honest but then again we’ve never really shone in the pre-season sunshine. Defeats at home to Rangers and away at Oldham have been offset with a win against Hibernian reserve and a scrambled draw at Bramall Lane.

What are we likely to see from Blackpool on Friday? Has Holloway decided on his best eleven?

Our keeper and defence look solid. We’ve not lost any players in this department and we’ve got plenty of squad cover. Just how good they are is difficult to gauge based on last season.

The midfield is of concern, whether we can replace our two best players Adam and Vaughan is a big ask and what I’ve seen so far it’s going to be very difficult. Barry Ferguson comes with some quality and we know that Southern won’t let anyone down if he’s allowed to play to his strengths but the big question is where does the spark come from?

Up front, the only player I’m happy about is Gary Taylor-Fletcher, and Kevin Phillips has been signed to be a leading striker but it’s a gamble although young Matt Phillips could be a real star player for us. I have no idea how I think we’ll play and it will be interesting to see whether we have any potential to challenge. But at the moment, potential is all it is.

Possible Pool team:

Gilks, Eardley, Crainey, Cathcart, Evatt, Ferguson, Grandin, Southern, GTF, Clarke, K Phillips.
Subs: Haltead, Baptiste, Martinez, Ludo, Bruna

Peter Gillatt – It’s Not Orange, It’s Tangerine!
Blackpool FC Fansite
www.itstangerine.co.uk