Darren Powell was relieved to find out that the injury he sustained against Portsmouth was not a serious one. The Palace centre-back appeared to hurt himself when he headed a corner goalwards in the first ten minutes. After twenty minutes he signalled for the physio George Cooper, who decided that the defender was struggling and would have to be substituted.

Powell's injury was later diagnosed as acute torticollis, which is a locked up joint in the neck. The player is already recovering with treatment and has every chance of being fit for the Saturday's match against Coventry City.

o Dele Adebola completed a free transfer to Crystal Palace on Thursday. The 27-year-old Nigerian had been on trial at Palace for a couple of weeks and impressed in recent friendlies against Tottenham Hotspur and Charlton Athletic. He began his career at Crewe Alexandra where he scored 46 goals in 148 starts.

This earnt him a £1m move to Birmingham City where he netted 42 times in 102 starts.

The 6 ft 3ins hitman has signed on a one year deal and was delighted to join the Eagles: "Crystal Palace are a big club with a lot of potential and hopefully I can help them reach the Premiership, because that's where they belong."

o The reserves will play their first League fixture at Carshalton on Wednesday. Palace's opponents are local rivals Brighton and Hove Albion.

The reserve team had a very successful season last year at Dulwich Hamlet, finishing second in the League and will be looking to go one better this year. Resrve and Yoth teamn fixture will be played at the War Memorial Sports Ground, Colston Avenue, Carshalton, Surrey, SM3 2PW.

o Dave Swindlehurst's reserves got their Combination League campaign off to a great start away at Bournemouth winning comfortably 4-0. The game was played at Lymington & New Milton's Fawcett Fields ground and the Palace goalscorers were Gareth Williams (2), Dele Adebola and Wayne Routledge.

Palace Team: Kolinko, Hunt, Frampton, Watson, Antwi, Berhalter, Routledge, Surey, Adebola, Williams, Rubins Subs: Smith, Borrowdale (for Surey), Nabil (for Adebola), Togwell (for Hunt).

o The latest Club auction on the Official website gives you the chance to enjoy a three course meal with the Chairman and Manager at the Grosvenor Hotel in Park Lane.

Bidding starts at just £200! This auction will run for just one week so get bidding now for this opportunity of a lifetime! Visit for more details.

o Crystal Palace FC together with TeamCard are delighted to announce our new summer signing of Allders as a partner of the TeamCard scheme.

This has now expanded the choice of where to collect Palace TeamCard points and added to the quality of partners who are already on board.

All season ticket holders and members can now collect 20 TeamCard points for every £10 spent when you shop in any of the Croydon, Sutton and Bromley stores.

Simply present your card with your purchases to collect those TeamCard points.

August 21, 2002 13:00