Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis has his critics but he certainly knows how to galvanise his players and get the best out of limited resources.

Having been odds-on relegation candidates before Pulis’ appointment a fortnight ago, Palace have now won twice in five days, their first back-to-back haul of the season.

They may still be in the bottom three but it is now only on goal difference. Who would bet against Pulis maintaining his record of never having been relegated in 21 years as a manager?

Of all the Palace players given a lift, none seems to have benefitted more than on-loan Cameron Jerome who teased, tormented, bullied and bamboozled Cardiff.

Pulis and Jerome were reported to have had a fall-out when they were together at Stoke, but you would never have guessed it.

Cardiff just could not live with either Jerome or Arsenal’s former Morocco forward Marouane Chamakh who also looks a different player, typified by some terrific link-up play.

Football is often about small margins. With less than two minutes on the clock, Julian Speroni produced a wonder save from Fraizer Campbell’s downward header.

A goal for Cardiff then and who knows what might have transpired?

Instead, four minutes later, Jerome did virtually the same thing for Palace and David Marshall couldn’t keep it out.

Palace never looked back while Cardiff, who have now ominously won just once in nine outings, looked off the pace and anxious.

Marshall was at his best to turn away another Jerome strike before Chamakh won the points with the sweetest of strikes into the corner.

The visitors had two great chances by Peter Odemwinge and Jordon Mutch to reduce the deficit but did not do enough to deserve anything on the day and are now one point off the relegation zone.

‘It’s always tough for teams who get promoted to stay in this league, and everyone understands that,’ said Pulis.

‘We are not going to get carried away by two wins but we needed to be around the pack because we’ve got some very hard away games coming up.

‘Cameron is a threat to anyone if he does what he’s good at, and Arsenal never buy a player who doesn’t have quality.’

Palace, said Jerome, now have far more self-belief. ‘The team spirit is really high and there is no more fear factor,’ he said.

By contrast, Malky Mackay, who denied reports that fit-again Craig Bellamy had stayed on the team bus in protest at being left out, looked like his pride had been dented.

‘We know that is not easy to do in the Premier League but we had a good result against Man United, it is 1-0 against Arsenal with four minutes to go and we got a good point at Stoke.

‘As far as I’m concerned it is about performances and picking up points as we go.

‘We have to be more clinical in front of goal. We have got to be in every game and more competitive in every game.

‘I don’t cast an eye over my shoulder. If I was cast adrift at the bottom of the league I could understand that but we are not.

‘It’s obviously a bad result and we certainly weren’t at it the way we have been,’ he said.

‘Goals change games but we have to defend our box better.’

—Daily Mail