Cameron Jerome reminds Pulis of qualities in Crystal Palace win at Hull
Tony Pulis may have been encouraged when he left the KC Stadium with the Crystal Palace
co-owner Steve Parish on Saturday, but he will not have been fooled.
The Eagles' first away win of the season lifted them off the bottom of
the Premier League,
but what went before a final 10 minutes in which Palace's Yannick
Bolassie was sent off, Barry Bannan scored a winner created by Cameron
Jerome and Hull City's Liam Rosenior hit the post must have left the former Stoke manager pale beneath his tan.
Put simply, neither of these teams looked remotely good enough to stay up. Not because they were not well-organised or hard-working or disciplined or tough to break down: as a gloomy City manager, Steve Bruce, pointed out after the game, these days every team at this level possess those qualities. The task facing Bruce, and now Pulis, is to give their sides some sort of threat in the final third of the field, because as things stand Palace have scored just seven goals in 12 games, Hull nine.
Key to doing that will be the clubs' activity during the January transfer window, and Pulis would not have signed a two-and-half-year contract to put his record of never having managed a side to relegation on the line without receiving assurances he will be given the go-ahead to bring in as many as five faces.
More immediately, however, Palace's next three matches are against Norwich City, West Ham United and Cardiff City. With the returns from those games likely to be critical at the end of the season, Pulis may have to bury his differences with Jerome.
Palace's on-loan Stoke striker criticised Pulis for failing to pick him often enough, after the Welshman left the Britannia Stadium, but he made a significant impact after replacing a bloodied Marouane Chamakh during the first half. Strong, direct and brave, he held the ball up to bring his midfielders into play, won a number of headers and created the goal.
Jerome said: "Tony will look at what he's got and make a decision on the team he wants to play. As a professional, you've just got to get on with it and train hard and, when you're selected, you've got to do your job. What he will bring is experience and stability. He took Stoke up from the Championship and solidified them as a mid-table Premier League team, so his record speaks for itself.
" I'm sure he'll shore us up and we'll be more resilient and won't concede as many as we have been doing in recent weeks. The boys, I'm sure, will look forward to working with him and I'm sure Tony will look forward to working with us as well."
The caretaker manager, Keith Millen, who spoke to Pulis on Friday and Saturday, was similarly positive about his new boss, and will have been reassured to hear Parish praise the work Millen has done since Ian Holloway left Selhurst Park four weeks ago. While Pulis will bring in his own coaching staff, it seems likely Millen will be offered a role.
While Palace have some grounds for optimism, Hull's situation looks increasingly bleak. They face Liverpool, Arsenal and Swansea City in their next three games, and unrest about the owner Assem Allam's determination to change the club's name to Hull Tigers shows no sign of going away. When heavy-handed stewards attempted to prevent the parading of a banner reading "We Are Hull City" in front of the popular East Stand, the situation threatened to boil over until wiser counsel prevailed and the men in fluorescent jackets backed off.
Man of the match: Cameron Jerome (Crystal Palace).
Put simply, neither of these teams looked remotely good enough to stay up. Not because they were not well-organised or hard-working or disciplined or tough to break down: as a gloomy City manager, Steve Bruce, pointed out after the game, these days every team at this level possess those qualities. The task facing Bruce, and now Pulis, is to give their sides some sort of threat in the final third of the field, because as things stand Palace have scored just seven goals in 12 games, Hull nine.
Key to doing that will be the clubs' activity during the January transfer window, and Pulis would not have signed a two-and-half-year contract to put his record of never having managed a side to relegation on the line without receiving assurances he will be given the go-ahead to bring in as many as five faces.
More immediately, however, Palace's next three matches are against Norwich City, West Ham United and Cardiff City. With the returns from those games likely to be critical at the end of the season, Pulis may have to bury his differences with Jerome.
Palace's on-loan Stoke striker criticised Pulis for failing to pick him often enough, after the Welshman left the Britannia Stadium, but he made a significant impact after replacing a bloodied Marouane Chamakh during the first half. Strong, direct and brave, he held the ball up to bring his midfielders into play, won a number of headers and created the goal.
Jerome said: "Tony will look at what he's got and make a decision on the team he wants to play. As a professional, you've just got to get on with it and train hard and, when you're selected, you've got to do your job. What he will bring is experience and stability. He took Stoke up from the Championship and solidified them as a mid-table Premier League team, so his record speaks for itself.
" I'm sure he'll shore us up and we'll be more resilient and won't concede as many as we have been doing in recent weeks. The boys, I'm sure, will look forward to working with him and I'm sure Tony will look forward to working with us as well."
The caretaker manager, Keith Millen, who spoke to Pulis on Friday and Saturday, was similarly positive about his new boss, and will have been reassured to hear Parish praise the work Millen has done since Ian Holloway left Selhurst Park four weeks ago. While Pulis will bring in his own coaching staff, it seems likely Millen will be offered a role.
While Palace have some grounds for optimism, Hull's situation looks increasingly bleak. They face Liverpool, Arsenal and Swansea City in their next three games, and unrest about the owner Assem Allam's determination to change the club's name to Hull Tigers shows no sign of going away. When heavy-handed stewards attempted to prevent the parading of a banner reading "We Are Hull City" in front of the popular East Stand, the situation threatened to boil over until wiser counsel prevailed and the men in fluorescent jackets backed off.
Man of the match: Cameron Jerome (Crystal Palace).
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