Pulis Becomes Palace Manager as Keith Millen Signs Off with First Away Win of Season Against Hull!

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.