FA Cup veteran Tony Pulis is eyeing a Wembley appearance after seeing his West Bromwich Albion side storm into the last eight of the competition.
The experienced boss masterminded a comfortable 4-0 victory over West Ham United at The Hawthorns and is now hoping to repeat his past managerial achievements with his new Baggies side.
West Brom 4-0 West Ham
FA Cup Fifth Round
The Hawthorns
Saturday 14 February 2015
Winners receive £180,000
Pulis guided Stoke City to the FA Cup Final in 2011 only to lose out to Manchester City and, weighing up the virtues of knockout football, is hoping to return to the national stadium.
“I hope this Cup run can go hand-in-hand with our league form,” said the Welshman. “I like the FA Cup, I think it’s a fantastic competition.
“This is the fifth FA Cup quarter-final I have been in from Stoke all the way through and I’ve been to a semi-final and a Final. If we can add to that and get to another semi-final then I’ll be absolutely delighted.
“But we’ll see, we’ve got to be lucky with the draw.”
Brown Ideye nods home his second goal and West Brom's third
Albion blew away their opponents with arguably their best performance of the season. However for perfectionist Pulis, only nine games into his tenure at The Hawthorns, there’s still a long way to go.
“This team has got different strengths to what I had at Crystal Palace and to what I had at Stoke,” he said.
“At Palace, we had pace down the sides of the pitch so you could work on bringing teams on to you and counter attacking down the sides.
"We haven’t got pace down the sides of the pitch – we’ve got trickery so it’s about working a system that suits the players.
“We’ve been trying to do that and trying to implement things that will help us as a team.
James Morrison fires home from long-range
"There’s still a long way to go and there’s still stuff that I’m not happy with so we’ve got to keep our feet firmly on the ground, make sure we get over the line [in the Premier League] and then go from there.
“In the Cup, whatever draw we get, we’ll be pulling a strong side out and trying to get through.”
After his brace against the Hammers, striker Brown Ideye has bagged four goals in his last three games after a previous run of just two in 17 matches. So where has this turnaround come from?
“It’s goals,” Pulis stated. “He’s scored a couple of goals and that’s what the kid needed to do and he’s no different to any striker.
“People in crucial positions on the pitch, they thrive off confidence. I’m very pleased for Browny because he’s a good lad and ever since I’ve been here he’s worked hard.”
