DEL’S SAM-THING TO PROVE
SAM ALLARDYCE says Damien Delaney will today be out to prove he was wrong to drop him.
The Crystal Palace defender has been sidelined during his side’s climb away from the bottom three after making way for Mamadou Sakho, on loan from Liverpool.
But with Sakho joining fellow defenders Scott Dann and James Tomkins on the injury list, 35-year-old Delaney will be recalled for the visit of Burnley.
Palace boss Allardyce ® said: “Damien is a seasoned professional and has to draw on his own pride and experience by saying, ‘I am disappointed that the manager hasn’t picked me, I think he should have’.
“There is no doubt he will be peeved but he is a professional who has kept himself fit and is still playing in the Premier League at his age – which is rarer and rarer these days.
“I expect him to be 100 per cent professional as always. He has handled the disappointment extremely well and always been very good in the dressing room.
“I hope he plays to the capabilities he can play at, and if he needs to show me what I was missing I hope he does that as well and says, ‘There you go, you should have played me sooner’.”
Meanwhile, scans taken yesterday show Sakho’s knee injury was not as bad as first feared and he could possibly return for the final game of the season.
“So the set-up is not specific to Joey, it’s about the team role.”
Burnley know that one more win will probably ensure survival – although they are the only team in the Premier League without an away victory this season.
But Dyche does not care where the points come from.
He added: “Points on the board are all I’m interested in. That’s all I’ll be judged on, all the club will be judged on and all that the players will be judged on.
“Anything else is just a small story compared to the big story in my view.
“Points on the board to stay in the Premier League.
“It’s now about delivering in our final few games.”