Pulis hails West Brom´s first-half performance

West Brom head coach Tony Pulis hailed his team’s first-half performance as they recorded back-to-back Premier League victories with a 3-2 win against Crystal Palace.

Pulis’ men raced into a 3-0 lead after just 31 minutes thanks to goals from Craig Gardner, Craig Dawson and Saido Berahino.

Palace hit back with a brace from Connor Wickham but West Brom held on to climb above Palace to 13th place in the league and Pulis was delighted with how his team started the match.

“We played really well first half, as good as we’ve played,” he told BBC Sport.

“People can see when Saido and Salomon [Rondon] play together what a handful they are. We haven’t had that for half a season.

“If you take [Harry] Kane out of Tottenham or [Jamie] Vardy out of Leicester, that’s how big a gap it is to take Saido out of this team. Those two were a real handful.”

Pulis was full of praise for Berahino, whose first Premier League goal since October proved to be the game’s decisive strike.

“[Berahino] was very good today and the rest of the team were, he was unlucky not to get a few other goals as well,” Pulis said.

“I’d have been devastated if we’d not won that game. We played some good stuff.

“I thought they went back to front and caused us lots of problems but we dealt with it and when we got time we played good football.

West Brom’s victory was only their third in 11 matches in all competitions, but Pulis insisted his team is playing well.

“From the last nine games we’re sixth in the Premier League on form,” he said. “We’re on a good run.

“We played really well so [the fans] had something to cheer and at the end when they needed them they got behind us.”