Newport County’s FA Cup journey brings them back to Rodney Parade in midweek, but it will not be the only home-coming. Middlesbrough manager Tony Pulis is one of the city’s most famous footballing sons – a status hard-earned and well deserved, says Tom Prosser.
Tony Pulis once supported Newport County from the terraces at Somerton Park and gave his all as a player for his hometown club, but on Tuesday night he will put all that aside when he brings his Middlesbrough team to Rodney Parde for their FA Cup fourth round replay.
The Pill-born manager is now a stalwart of British football and is one of a select group of managers to be in the dug-out for over 1,000 matches. He joined the likes of Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson in reaching that milestone.
On the playing side, Pulis was a defender and as a youngster he played for Newport YMCA before joining the Bristol Rovers centre of excellence where he played alongside Ian Holloway.
He has regularly said that the principles he learned during this period have helped both him and Holloway in management.
In two spells at Bristol Rovers, Pulis made 150 appearances, either side of a brief stint in Hong Kong with Happy Valley.
In 1984, he then returned home to Newport County where he featured 89 times in two seasons playing under Colin Addison and latterly Bobby Smith.
It was during his time at County that he was commended for his leadership and professionalism. He was also a popular member of the dressing room and former team-mates such as David Giles have reflected they always felt he was destined for a successful career in management.
But with Newport then – as now – struggling financially, they sold Pulis to Bournemouth where he won promotion to the Second Division in his first season at the club.
Pulis stayed at Bournemouth for three seasons before a brief spell at Gillingham was sandwiched between a return to the South Coast club as a player-coach under Harry Redknapp.
Pulis, now 61, completed his UEFA A license at the age of 21 making him one of the youngest to do so whilst still playing the game professionally.
When Redknapp left the Cherries, Pulis was promoted and given his fist job as a manager.
After being in charge of Bournemouth for two seasons, Pulis left for Gillingham where he won them promotion to the second division. This was seen as remarkable turnaround considering Gillingham were languishing near the bottom of the Football League at the start of Pulis’s four year tenure at the club.
He then had unsuccessful spells at Bristol City and Portsmouth which both lasted for under a year.
But after two years out of football, Pulis then joined Stoke City which is a club that is now highly associated with Pulis and where he built his widespread reputation.
When he took over in 2002, the Potters were facing relegation to the third tier of English football, but Pulis miraculously kept them up and rates this as one of his biggest achievements.
In his second spell in charge, he worked wonders yet again. He got them promoted to the Premier League on the final day of the 2007 season – the first time Stoke had been promoted to the top tier in 23 years.
Pulis then consolidated Stoke as an established Premier League team and turned them into a side that no-one looked forward to facing, particularly at home at what was then known as the Britannia Stadium.
He guided Stoke to their first ever FA Cup final in 2011, where the lost 1-0 to Manchester City. By reaching the final they also qualified for the Europa League.
Pulis then left Stoke at the end of the 2012/13 season as the club struggled to make any further progress. It could be argued that he was a victim of his own success.
Stoke were often regarded as a long-ball team under Pulis, but whatever your tastes, his was certainly a recipe for success throughout his time at the club.
In 2014, Pulis was awarded the Premier League manager of the year award after he replaced Holloway as Crystal Palace manager – taking over a side bottom of the table and finishing the season in 11th place.
More recently, he has managed West Brom and currently Middlesbrough, who he hopes to get promoted to the Premier League after missing out in last season’s play-offs.
In terms of management style, Pulis has a reputation within the game for achieving solid results on small budgets.
In summary, the man who returns to his footballing home as County look to spring another upset, has the proud record of never being relegated as a player, manager or coach.
That’s some status, but it may yet prove not enough to deny Mike Flynn’s men what would be another famous Cup victory.
