Kelly plays down Pulis effect at West Ham

Pulis was named as Alan Irvine's permanent replacement earlier in the day and watched on as Saido Berahino's first-half equaliser gained West Brom a point.

Under Irvine, West Brom lost their last three Premier League games, but showed resilience to recover from Diafra Sakho's opener.

Kelly played down Pulis' impact and explained much of the preparation had already been done for the game prior to the Welshman's appointment.

"I'm sure it had an effect, he introduced himself this morning to the players, popped in at half-time - said one or two things - and came in at the end of the game," Kelly said.

"It's been good, he's let myself, Keith [Downing] and Dean [Kiely] get on with the preparation and organisation, but really anyone who knows Alan knows how well organised and planned he is.

"We'd spoken about these group of games as a whole, we'd had an outline, and we'd gone through it with Alan.

"We did most of the work there and spoke about the teams we were thinking of playing.

"Most of it had been done and Tony and [assistant] David Kemp just let us get on with the preparation and organisation."

West Brom sit just one point above the relegation zone, with the final spot occupied by Pulis' former club Crystal Palace.

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