Palace fans will tomorrow be able to see their side play at Glanford Park for the first time in the club's history.

The Eagles have only played Scunthorpe on two occasions - neither of which have been in the league. In 1960 they lost an FA Cup Third Round tie at United's former home, the Old Show Ground, and nine years ago a Neil Emblen double at Selhurst Park sent Palace through at the same stage of the same competition.

A repeat scoreline of the latter would come in handy for Palace boss Neil Warnock, as he looks for a win to drag the club out of the relegation zone.

Having last been in the second tier in the 1962-63 season, these are groundbreaking times for the North Lincolnshire club known as The Iron.

Promoted as League One Champions last year, Scunthorpe have got off to a solid start to the current campaign and are currently nestled in 9^th position.

Yet the level of expectation is still high. After United's last home game, a goalless draw against Leicester City, a small section of the host fans booed their team off the pitch.

The Iron manager Nigel Adkins said: "Maybe it's a sign of how far we have come when everybody is very, very disappointed that we haven't beaten a Leicester City side with the millions of Milan Mandaric.

"I think we forced the issue all the way through the game to try and win it. We have kept good possession of the football and I think it shows just how far the football club has come.

"We can't go out and spend millions like Leicester City, so we have got a group of guys who are trying to do the best they can."

The elevation to the dizzy heights of the Championship has enabled Adkins to spend more money than was ever possible for a club with a 9000-capacity stadium.

In the summer he set a new club transfer record of £200,000 on midfielder Kevan Hurst from Sheffield United and brandished an undisclosed figure to re-sign Paul Hayes, a striker who bagged 34 goals in 116 appearances in his first spell at The Iron between December 2002 and June 2005.

French defender Kelly Youga has been a main fixture since joining on a six-month loan deal from Charlton, and forward Jonathan Forte will be a familiar face to Warnock after he was signed from Sheffield United in the summer.

Perhaps the best bit of business undertaken by Adkins over the summer was the signing of Martin Paterson from Stoke. The 20-year-old has registered seven goals this season, including the breakthrough that set up Scunthorpe's first win of the season against Burnley in August, and a double to floor Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 after going a goal behind.

Scunthorpe may be forced to field 20-year-old Josh Lillis in goal for this Saturday's game if number one Joe Murphy fails to shake off a thigh problem.

Murphy picked up the injury in the warm up prior to Tuesday's draw with Cardiff but managed to play 45 minutes before being replaced by youth product Lillis, who has started just one game - in the Carling Cup - for the Iron.

Midfielder Alex Morfaw has edged closer to a return to action following ankle surgery. The 19-year-old summer signing underwent an exploratory operation three weeks ago and is now back running on the treadmill. The Cameroonian, yet to appear for Nigel Adkins' side since arriving from Nantes, suffered an ankle injury in a pre-season match at Lincoln.

Palace manager Neil Warnock has to decide whether to retain young left back Lee Hills for the game. The 17-year-old made his debut against Watford on Monday and the Palace manager will choose between him and the comparative experience of Tony Craig.

On loan French winger Frank Songo'o also made his first start in the game, and may retain his place as Tom Soares completes a three-game suspension incurred for a sending off at Blackpool.

Paul Dickov and Danny Butterfield are both ruled out, while Dave Martin is battling a bout of flu.

Mark Kennedy and Paul Ifill have returned to training, but Neil will not risk either for Saturday's trip to Scunthorpe or the game at Cardiff the following Tuesday.   

"They've trained well this week," he said. "I was going to send them away to Lilleshall for a week but they have started off the week doing physical and football-related training, and joined in with the first team on Thursday.

"But we can't think about these two games - We can't risk being out for another 6 or 7 weeks.

"Scunthorpe's a very tight ground and we have to compete. It's not a place where you can play a lot of football. It's different to Cardiff where they like to play a little bit."

"Fitness-wise, we're a bit thin on the ground."