Tony Pulis could be facing a fresh strikeforce tonight when Hull City make the trip to Selhurst Park.

While Crystal Palace have struggled to bring in new faces in the January transfer window, the Tigers have recruited strikers Shane Long from WBA and Nikica Jelavic from Everton for a combined fee of around £14m.

The pair are yet to start a match together, but that could all change tonight.

Pulis said: "Steve Bruce has done a great job at Hull City, and tonight will be tough for us.

"It looks like [Shane] Long and [Nikica] Jelavic will play together for the first time – that will bolster their chances of scoring goals.

"Yes, we have some irons in the fire but their two front men were not on our radar.

"What we have got is a football club that only two and a half years ago came out of administration and for them to be where they are now is absolutely fantastic.

"Finances are important to this football club, they have to be right, and those two are little out of our reach."

He added: "Our game at Hull in November was the first one I watched when I came to the club – and to win 1-0 despite having a player sent off was a great result for us.

"Most of Hull’s points have been picked up at home, it is difficult to get points on the road, but Steve knows that and he is an experienced manager and he knows what the Premier League is like."

"They have some good players and he has brought players with a little bit of quality, but also players with Premier League experience, that is important in this situation."

News Shopper:

New outlook: Shane Long, here in his Reading days, could line up for Hull City against Palace tonight    SP54999