RIVALRIES were set aside today when Sam Allardyce urged West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace to sit down and settle his differences with manager Gary Megson.

"He's got to be the most successful manager Albion have had for about 40 years," the Wanderers' boss said of the under-pressure Megson.

"To see his job under threat so early in the season when he's done so well is really disappointing."

Speculation that Megson, who has not seen eye to eye with Peace, is heading for the axe, intensified this week following Albion's Carling Cup defeat at Colchester and reports have suggested Wanderers could put the final nail in his coffin at The Hawthorns next week.

Allardyce, born in the West Midlands and on the Albion management team from 1989-91, will be looking to take maximum points from the Albion game, but he sees no reason why the reported differences between the chairman and manager cannot be resolved in the meantime.

"They should sit down and work it out between them," he said. "Neither the chairman or West Brom will benefit if Gary leaves, because he's done such a fantastic job on a limited budget.

"I wouldn't relish coming out of the First Division (Coca-Cola Championship) and having to survive in the Premiership - the money's diminished by 65 to 70 per cent compared to when we were there. It's nearly becoming an impossibility for a manager to survive in his first year, but Gary's convinced them to do it his way and suddenly his job is under threat because he's lost a Carling Cup tie to Colchester.

"The cup shouldn't be important to West Brom - it's the Premiership that matters."