Crystal Palace assistant manager Keith Millen says the return of Dougie Freedman to Selhurst Park this weekend means more to the fans than it does to him and Ian Holloway.

Freedman brings his struggling Bolton Wanderers to south-east London for the first time since quitting the Eagles in October.

Bolton have won just twice in eight games, while Palace have continued where they left off when Freedman walked out.

Despite Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Burnley, Palace remain in the play-offs and a win over the Trotters could propel them into the top two.

“There is no doubt that Dougie’s return will add some spice to the game, but to me and Ian it is just another chance for three points,” Millen said.

“Dougie did such a great job when he was here, and he loved being here, it will be interesting to see the reaction he gets. But it will not have any bearing on how we approach the game. We need to concentrate on ourselves. We need to get back to winning ways after last weekend.”

On the 1-0 Championship defeat to Burnley, Millen said: “We had a bad first half – which is unlike us. We normally start on fire but this time we didn’t have the intensity and work-rate that we’re used to and we allowed Burnley get a foothold in the game.

“We were happy to get to half-time at 0-0 to be honest.

“We were much better in the second half, we changed a few things and the momentum was with us and then they went and scored against the run of play – we were dominant at the time.

“We were disappointed to lose obviously, but this was more about the performance. If the lads put in the performance we ask for then we can accept it.

“You’re not going to win every game.

“But we didn’t do ourselves justice in the first half, so if we can learn from that, we’ll be better for it.

“We didn’t lose the game in the second half, we lost it in the first half by not being at our best.”