Nicky Law is still scratching his head about what to do with his attack. The Bantams boss is desperately short of strikers ahead of the clash with the high-flying Eagles tomorrow.

Ashley Ward is slowly coming back to fitness but the Palace game will come too early, Danny Cadamarteri is still out of the reckoning and Law's hands are tied over Andy Tod because of the £25,000 appearance clause with Dunfermline.

That leaves Law with the choice of playing teenager Mark Danks from the start or changing his formation to leave top scorer Andy Gray to go it alone.

Danks, 18, came off the bench to net City's consolation goal in the FA Cup defeat at West Brom. But Law, who was unimpressed with Juanjo's display up front before the substitution, may decide to reshuffle his resources and give Gray a foraging role with plenty of support from midfield.

Law said: "I'm not sure what to do at the moment. I'm not falling over myself with strikers and Cadamarteri and Ward seem to have been injured forever.

"It's difficult to get another one in because of the club's financial situation so it's a case of having to plod along with what we've got.

"Danks might be worth a chance and I could go with a young one. Otherwise, the choice is to change the system and build it round Andy by playing a different way."

Peter Atherton is back from a one-match ban and is likely to return in a midfield holding role.

He was badly missed at the Hawthorns and Law admitted: "Peter has been a big part of our success over the last few weeks before that.

"Having Peter Atherton in the side makes a massive difference to us. He brings us experience and quality and has great organisational skills.

"Peter is a calming influence on the younger players and we have a few of them in the team at the minute."

The bench could see the welcome return of keeper Gary Walsh after five months out with a knee injury.

Although he has not yet played a reserve game, Walsh has indicated he feels fit enough to rejoin the squad and is likely to get the back-up keeper nod over youngster Nicky Beach.

Law is wary of the threat from Palace hitman Tommy Black who has hit nine goals in the last nine games.

He said: "Black is clearly in a really good spell and will be a big test for us. But it's not just a case of watching him.

"Palace have also got Dele Adebola and Ade Akinbiyi and other good players who will cause us problems if we don't set about it in the right way.

"We got a good draw down there in a tough game and we've got to make sure we get something out of it tomorrow."