NEWPORT'S Tony Pulis has fond memories of watching Cardiff City as a child but will not go easy on the Bluebirds when he brings his Crystal Palace side to Wales tomorrow.

Palace are five points clear of 18th-placed Cardiff after a 1-0 win over Chelsea last week and will all but seal a second successive Premier League campaign if they follow that up with a victory in the Welsh capital.

Pulis, who replaced Ian Holloway at Selhurst Park in November, has taken the Eagles from the bottom of the league and now looks like keeping them afloat while one of his boyhood favourites continue to tread water.

"I watched Cardiff when I was a young boy and I also watched Newport when I could," he said.

"If I didn't have games on a Saturday, if I wasn't playing for the YMCA then we would jump on a train and if we could we would get to Cardiff.

"That was when (John) Toshack was playing, (Ian) Gibson was in midfield, and they had a very, very good team.

"My dad took me to watch Cardiff on a Tuesday or a Wednesday evening when they played Real Madrid when there were 50,000 people in the stadium."

With Pulis' long-standing connection to the club, the 56-year-old does not want to see Cardiff drop out of the top flight but insists there will be no favours from his players.

When asked if he wanted to see Cardiff go down, Pulis said: "Not at all. It was wonderful to see Cardiff get promoted to join Swansea, I was disappointed that Wrexham didn't get promoted into the league but it was lovely to see my home-town club (Newport County) get promoted back.

"Last year was a really good year for Welsh football and I want it to thrive, it is important for the nation that sport in Wales thrives.

"It is a fantastic club and a great city. I hope, along with us, that they stay in the Premier League but there will be nothing given from us on Saturday."