CRYSTAL Palace expect to be boosted by the return of Alex Marrow ahead of their crunch game against fellow Championship strugglers Derby County on Saturday.

Marrow has been ruled out for a number of weeks with an ankle problem but is set to be available again for the visit of the Rams, just in the nick of time as far as Dougie Freedman is concerned.

The Palace boss is already without captain Paddy McCarthy, who was sent off last week at QPR, and with Adam Barrett on-loan at Leyton Orient, the Eagles would have been without recognised cover at centre-back.

But Marrow has covered there before and could be called upon again this weekend.

Freedman said: “Adam Barrett can’t come back for 28 days but hopefully with Alex Marrow coming back, he can cover there.

“Alex has been training for the last couple of days with the physio and hopefully he will be back training with us tomorrow.”

The Eagles have so far impressed in high pressure home games with crucial victories over Middlesbrough, Preston and Sheffield United.

And with Derby being the visitors to SE25 on Saturday, Freedman’s side will have to once again put the pressure of the game to one side in order to get another all-important victory.

The managers is confident, though, his side isn’t feeling the pressure of a relegation battle.

“Being focussed on the job is the best way to take pressure off,” explained the Eagles chief.

“I personally don’t think the lads are under pressure at all the way they’ve been performing.

“We find ourselves in a relegation battle because of the start of the season but if you look at our form since the turn of the year, it isn’t relegation style.

“Our performances at home have been good, they’ve been big games against a lot of teams around us and we’ve done well.

“I don’t see that changing as long as we have the right attitude towards what I think is a winnable game.”

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