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Bristol City v Crystal Palace, Tuesday 7.45pm
Neil Warnock insists Crystal Palace still have everything to play for as they prepare for the second leg of their Coca-Cola Championship play-off at Bristol City.
Palace suffered a last-gasp 2-1 defeat in the home leg on Saturday but Warnock, who has never finished on the losing side in a play-off semi-final, insists the tie is far from over. Warnock has fired up his players ahead of the second leg, after branding City "arrogant" following their celebrations at the final whistle at Selhurst Park. And the Yorkshireman is relishing the opportunity of leading his young side into battle at what will be a packed Ashton Gate for the return leg tomorrow night.
"When everyone thinks you are out it's a great challenge to go and pit your wits against 20,000 fans and an opposing team who already think they are there. It's not beyond us," Warnock said. "I don't think we need any more motivation - apart from getting a deckchair out they couldn't have done much more. I thought they were arrogant and I don't think you expect that in professional football."
Warnock was unhappy with some of the treatment dished out to Victor Moses and has called on Tuesday's referee Howard Webb to clamp down on City's strong-arm tactics. Warnock spared Moses further punishment by substituting him early in the second half, but he says that will not stop him unleashing the powerful 17-year-old at Ashton Gate.
"Our young lad needed some protection and he didn't get any," he added. "They did whatever they could get away with within the parameters of the officials. Howard Webb is in charge on Tuesday, so I don't think there will be tackles like that."
James Scowcroft will be missing for Palace after suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury in the first leg and midfielder Neil Danns is still out with a groin problem. But defender Matt Lawrence could return to the starting line-up just a fortnight after undergoing hernia surgery.
Meanwhile, Nick Carle has warned it is far from "job done" for Bristol City ahead of their play-off semi-final second leg against Crystal Palace. Gary Johnson, the manager, insisted it was merely "half-time" after the first-leg victory and the 26-year-old Australian midfielder has moved to reinforce that belief.
"We all know it's only half a job done, they're a good side and if we're not on top of our game then anything can happen," he said. "The best thing is to worry about ourselves and to make sure we know what we have to do and to make sure we're on top of our game, because they are a good side and he [Warnock] will have them ready for the second leg.
"We don't want to make any mistakes or give them any chances to get back in the game. We just need to worry about what we need to do, to make sure we win the game and go through."
Warnock was also unhappy with City's first-leg tactics - he claimed some City players had set out to "kick" some of his younger players - but City's Michael McIndoe refuted those claims.
"We've played them a couple of times in the league and to say we've been kicked off the park was an understatement," he said. "But nobody can ever say they were kicked off the park. We're not a dirty team, we're very much a fair and honest side and over the last few weeks if you ask people who has been the dirtiest side, well we don't need to say do we."
Hull City v Watford, Wednesday 7.45pm
Leigh Bromby, the Watford defender, insists his team travel to Hull for the second leg of their Coca-Cola Championship play-off semi-final with "a clean slate" despite their awful run of form.
Goals from Nicky Barmby and Dean Windass put Phil Brown's side in a commanding 2-0 lead after the first leg and stretched Adrian Boothroyd's side's run to just one win in the last 15. Watford put in one of the worst performances of that run in a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at the KC Stadium back in March but Bromby insists that the squad are confident of pulling off a shock turnaround to reach Wembley.
He said: "We won't be thinking of the league defeat, it's a clean slate for everyone. The play-offs are a new experience for some players and Hull are a good side. I think we can do it though, and we'll be going in fully confident of getting a win. We played some good stuff but conceded two sloppy goals.
"We had chances in the game but they didn't seem to drop to us - we haven't been having much luck lately. Hopefully we can turn it round now as it's only halfway and we've got another chance on Wednesday. We're going up there and if we get the first goal you never know."
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