Championship preview: Leicester v Crystal Palace

Leicester will hope to stay top

Having seen their manager depart ahead of a visit to the Championship table-toppers, Crystal Palace probably need all the support they can get at the weekend.

It’s fortunate for them then that Saturday has been named as the third annual ‘Palace On Tour’ day by the club, with legions of fans urged to make the trip from South London to the East Midlands for the meeting of two of the star turns of the Championship season.

One man who won’t be making the trip is Dougie Freedman following his decision to swap fourth placed Palace, now on an 11 game unbeaten run, for Bolton in 16th who, to put it bluntly, aren’t.

The motivation behind Freedman’s move was down to the greater structure in place at the Reebok Stadium if you believe the Scot himself, but whilst it remains to be seen what Palace do next – a fifth spell in charge for Steve Coppell has been mooted – what is in no doubt is that they’ll face a stern test at the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Leicester’s run of six wins from their last seven games has taken Nigel Pearson’s side top of the Championship on goal difference from Cardiff, and as the Foxes chase a seventh successive home win confidence is understandably high.

Wins such as the one ground out at home to Brighton in midweek – when Andy King scored for the home side and the Seagulls missed a second half penalty through Ashley Barnes – have been the bedrock of their impressive start to the campaign, with forward Martyn Waghorn putting the success down to a strong team spirit.

You’d expect him to say such things of course, but that belief is pretty much the polar opposite of where Crystal Palace are now following their turbulent week, and the Foxes should be backed to clip the Eagles’ wings and bring an end to their unbeaten run. It’ll be a long way home for those visiting fans.

Elsewhere, Freedman’s Bolton career begins with a watching brief for a tricky trip to Middlesbrough, where Jimmy Phillips will remain in caretaker charge. Despite that, Wanderers will hope to experience that fabled ‘new manager bounce’ and register only a fifth league win of the season.

Boro have won four of their six home games though, and with Tony Mowbray determined to establish his side in the play-off places for the entirety of the campaign the home side should be backed to repeat probably their most famous result – the victory over Bolton to win the League Cup at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium in 2004.

Speaking of Cardiff, the club in second place in the Championship will look to continue their perfect home record when they host Burnley and their red hot forward Charlie Austin in South Wales on Saturday, whilst – having entered the play-offs with their 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday night – Blackburn will expect to stay there when they welcome Watford to Ewood Park.

Wolves will also seek to hold onto their top six place as they entertain Charlton, but any slip up would allow last week’s conquerors Huddersfield in if they can get a result away at Millwall.

Leeds will expect to jump up the table as they host struggling Birmingham, whilst Nottingham Forest will look to do the same as they go to Barnsley and there is a meeting of two clubs who have slumped recently as Blackpool play Brighton at Bloomfield Road.

Managerless and bottom of the table Ipswich host second-bottom Sheffield Wednesday in what is expected to be a real dogfight at Portman Road, whilst Derby will look to move into play-off contention by inflicting a sixth home defeat of the season upon Peterborough, and Hull go to Bristol City in the day’s late game.

Mark Jones – follow me on Twitter

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