JAY-JAY Okocha got a pat on the back after losing his cool in a head to head with Roy Keane.

Incensed when he was mugged by the United skipper, Okocha was booked for a retaliatory challenge that was more clumsy than malicious, much to the amusement fo Sam Allardyce who enjoyed seeing such fiesty stuff from his normally unflappable team leader.

"Jay-Jay was just frustrated he wasn't getting involved," Allardyce said.

"It's important for any player, especially Jay-Jay, to want to take the game by the scruff of the neck and, as far as I was concerned, it was nice to see a reaction like that."

Other than Okocha's rush of blood, Allardyce is proud of Wanderers' disciplinary record of late. They did not pick up a single red card last season and have accumulated only six bookings in the first five games of the current campaign.

In fact the Wanderers boss is delighted to see a nationwide reduction in yellow cards this season -- statistics he believes reflects an improvement in the standard of behaviour of the modern professional.

"Overall, I think players' behaviour these days is magnificent," he said. "When people go on about players diving and 'simulating' and trying to pretend it didn't go on in my day is the biggest load of rubbish. Just watch how Dalglish went down and Franny Lee and Trevor Francis. You just blew on them and they went down.

"Our average foul count is between eight and 14 and that's terrific. Last Saturday against United it was 24 because Matt Messias gave some of the niggly stuff and a couple of incidents got a bit hairy but, for a derby, there were no major incidents, which is great from a player's point of view.

"You can give the referee a bit of praise for man management but it's time somebody gave the players today a bit of praise rather than knocking them."

Allardyce remains concerned that officials are making too many blunders but made a play of placing his hand on the table top when he added: "Touch wood, we haven't had a referee who's missed anything major, yet."