Following
defeat away to West Bromwich Albion and a hard earned home point against
Everton, Keith Millen signed off his spell as caretaker manager with an
excellent battling performance to defeat Hull 1 – 0 with ten men. Tony Pulis
was appointed manager on the morning of the match and took up a watching brief
from the stand as the prolonged appointment process came to an end.
Crystal
Palace made one change from the draw against Everton with Dwight Gayle
replacing Jerome Thomas who was injured to play in the hole behind Maroane
Chemakh. Palace started well with Keith Millen setting the team up to be
compact and press high up the pitch whilst being hard to beat. It was Jedinak’s
role to break up play in midfield alongside KG and Barry Bannan with Yannick
Bolasie making marauding runs down the wing.
The
prolonged managerial recruitment process that had lasted exactly a month gave
Millen the time to implant some of his personality into the team, and they
responded showing great fight led by Delaney, Bannan, and Jedinak. Improved
performances followed and Hull was no exception even the much maligned Chemakh
put himself about enough to sustain a head wound. This led to him being
replaced when at his most effective by an equally committed Cameron Jerome.
Indeed watching
from the stands Tony Pulis would have got a good idea of the task at hand to
keep Palace up as well as the quality of the tools at his disposal to complete
the task. He would have no doubt followed Palace’s fortunes closely over the
last month knowing he was likely to eventually take over as he was one of Steve
Parish’s first targets of the whole drawn out recruitment saga. He would of had
to be confident of being able to do the job of keeping Palace up to put his
record of never having been relegated on the line.
The players
responded well to Keith Millen in his last game in charge. They were set up to
be hard to beat and in the first half Hull struggled to have enough quality to
break Palace down and they were restricted to half chances with the majority of
play in the midfield with Palace breaking on Hull. Bannan was effective in
midfield setting up runs for Bolasie that Chamakh and Gayle could feed off on
the break.
The turning
point of the match came in the second half with Hull still struggling to break
Palace down with Steve Bruce’s side been restricted to relatively few clear cut
opportunities. The former Palace managerial incumbent remained the but of many
a Palace fans terrace jibe. Indeed for much of the match most of the entertainment
took the form of terrace banter in the crowd as Palace fans mocked the locals
over Hull’s name change to the Tigers. When Palace did attack Bolasie became
most effective, feeding off balls from Bannan and Jedinak to supply Gayle and
substitute Cameron Jerome as Hull’s home crowd became increasingly frustrated.
On Eighty
three minutes Bolasie broke again fed by Bannan, he turned inside, and in
trying to make room for a shot engaged the defender again and as the Hull
player tried to tackle Bolasie he miss controlled the ball and overcommitted to
the tackle. The referee judged the tackle to be out of control and showed
Bolasie a red card. The sending off
frustrated Crystal Palace and incensed their supporters but instead of giving
up the incident galvanised the team and showed the watching Pulis the team
spirit of his new charges. Three minutes later on eighty six minutes Jerome
held the ball up in attack, skilfully turned his man and fired the ball low
across the box for the on rushing Bannan to slot the ball home putting Palace 1
– 0 up sending the travelling fans into raptures.
Palace had
to hold on despite a Hull onslaught for the final five minutes that saw Liam
Rosenior hit the post. Few could argue Palace deserved the win at the final
whistle in what was a tight and scrappy game. Keith Millen got a huge ovation
on full time as the Palace faithful saluted his efforts in masterminding what
was Palace’s first away points of this campaign.
The size of
the task at hand for Tony Pulis is no doubt clear and it will not be easy but a
platform for progress has been laid down by Millen as Palace on seven points
next play Norwich with a real opportunity to make further progress. It is over
to Tony Pulis and what he can do to keep Palace in touch with other teams at
the bottom of the Premier League. How can Pulis rescue a campaign left for him
by old friend Ian Holloway and given new momentum by Keith Millen.
