Getting Warmer...

Chris Cohen has ordered his family to be nice and early into the Millennium stadium on Saturday - so they can see his warm-up routine...

"The manager spoke to me and Mark Noble and said that although we are in the squad we probably won't be on the bench, but hopefully we can do the warm-up and that will be good," says the modest teenager who has played four all four West Ham teams this season.

"It has been good for the last few days and everyone has been really excited.

"My family are going to come on the train on Saturday and I have told them to get there really early!

"It will be a new and great experience just being part of it.

"This is just the first of many such occasions, I hope, for me.

"It is such a massive thing for me and Mark Noble just to be in the squad and we are going to enjoy it."

Mark, like Chris, recently signed a professional contract at West Ham, and Chris says:

"He is my best friend at the club because we do everything together and play for England, so I am pleased he has signed his contract and hopefully he can carry on progressing.

"It is so important financially and it is a huge game for us; we have to be confident, but we also have to know what Crystal Palace's strengths are and have done our homework."

Chris is realistic enough to know that promotion would lead to increased competition at West Ham with an influx of new players, and he concludes:

"If we were to go up I am not sure what would happen to me; I would be back in the reserves and a lot of new players would come in that you could learn from and that would be good."