Crystal Palace take on Preston in the Capital One Cup this evening and boss Dougie Freedman is going all out to win the tie.


The Eagles beat Exeter City 2-1 in the first round and now travel to the Deepdale, their second away trip of the competition, and are hoping to be in the hat for the third round.


After a long trip to Middlesbrough at the weekend, the team are clocking up the mileage and will have travelled more than 980 miles in the space of four days.


Freedman said he doesn’t think of the mileage as an excuse and instead said it was more of a pain for the loyal Eagles fans rather than his team.


“It is the fans I take my hat off to. The fans who travel up to Middlesbrough then again to Preston, they follow us up and down the country,” he said.


“We get to travel in luxury now. We go on planes, trains and coaches and get it all paid for so no complaints from us.


The Palace boss said his side will not be resting on their laurels for the game, and are desperate to recreate the cup magic from last year.


He said: “We will take the strongest squad possible. We don’t have the luxury to pick and choose. We have a few injuries but we take this cup seriously as we were a penalty kick away from the final last year.


“We won a lot of hearts last year when we played in the cups so we will take a strong squad.


“It was only just over a year ago we were playing Preston in the same division so it will be a very difficult game and we have to be right at it.”