Diouf is set for Derby Debut

The Wanderers boss is concerned that the Senegal international, signed on loan from Liverpool for the rest of the season, will not be ready to figure in Wednesday night's Premiership game at Southampton.

Diouf was expected to link up with Wanderers at their southern training base today after leaving the country on Friday to comply with immigration procedures. Premier League red tape means he will not be allowed to play against Liverpool at the Reebok next Sunday.

"Even though he has trained all summer, he hasn't played a competitive game so he's short of match practice," Allardyce said of the two-time African Footballer of the Year.

"Of course, he wouldn't be allowed to play against Liverpool so I don't think he will be involved on Wednesday."

As keen as he is to boost his attacking ranks with a player whose pre-Anfield career suggests he can improve Wanderers' goal power, the Bolton chief reckons his team's performance at Fulham on Saturday was so poor that not even Diouf at his best could have affected the result.

"Even if he'd been on top of his game, there were too many players had an off-day for him to have made any difference," Allardyce said, reflecting on a 2-0 defeat that brought Wanderers crashing down to earth after hitting the heights with their opening day demolition of Charlton.

"You're always disappointed when you lose a game but it was the way we lost it that worried me. Most of the time we were second best."

Allardyce offered no excuses but he always feared that having seven members of his squad away on international duty last week would take its toll - a problem exacerbated by having Friday's training session virtually washed out.

"Seven of our internationals travelled around the world and didn't get back until Thursday and that disrupted what we would have been doing with the players," he said.

"This is such an important part of the season. You have to be into them all the time, demanding that they stick to the basics and keep their shape. You have to revisit that two or three times a week to keep it fresh in their minds because they've switched off over the summer. But we were unable to do that work with them and then on Friday the weather was so horrendous, we could only do a quick walk-through at the Reebok.

"So perhaps we were lacking in our organisation and our shape.

"But most of all, we were lacking in that extra yard. We didn't have that yard we had over Charlton, and Fulham seemed to have it over us."

Allardyce hopes his players will benefit from his decision to cut down the travelling time between the Fulham and Southampton games by setting up base south of London.

But he knows he will need a much-improved performance if Wanderers are to repeat last season's success at St Mary's.

And they will hope for better luck on the refereeing front after Hampshire's Rob Styles turned down strong appeals for a penalty, which might have changed the course of the game at the Cottage.

"It was a definite penalty," Allardyce said of the 19th minute incident when Henrik Pedersen was flattened by Fulham's Dutch international keeper Edwin van der Sar.

"Van der Sar mugged Henrik and he (the referee) just waves it on. We only got one penalty in 38 games last season, and it's mind-boggling that these situations continue to happen."

Sleep proves dream tactic for big Papa

FULHAM came up with a snappy way of countering the threat of Jay-Jay Okocha when they gave their new midfield man - Papa Bouba Diop - some sleep therapy.

Cottagers boss Chris Coleman revealed that it was his assistant, Steve Kean, who got the Senegal international, a 6ft 4ins mountain of a man, geared up for his head-to-head with the in-form Wanderers captain.

"Steve sent Papa Diop home from training on Friday with a picture of Okocha and told him to put it under his pillow ... and to stay as close to him as he could on Saturday," Coleman said.

It worked. After scaring Fulham with a shot in the first minute that almost caught Dutch keeper Edwin Van der Sar unaware, Okocha was kept out of harm's way by Diop, who has the makings of a top Premiership midfield player, not unlike Arsenal's captain Patrick Vieira in style and stature.

Consequently, Wanderers lost their main driving force and came away from Craven Cottage - back in commission for the first time in two years - smarting from a defeat that was far more convincing than the 2-0 scoreline would suggest.

"Okocha's obviously a quality player and he showed some brilliant touches," Coleman said. "But overall he was a lot quieter than last week against Charlton when he was instrumental and scored two great goals.

"That's a great credit to our midfield boys."

It was his admiration for the way Wanderers demolished Charlton 4-1 on the opening day of the season that gave Coleman such a kick out of beating them so comprehensively.

"Bolton are a good team," he said. "I like the way Sam plays. It's not so different to the way we play with the one up front and two wide boys. It's a good system. Not many teams in the Premiership play that way. It's a foreign system and it's one that I like.

"To beat them 2-0 and beat them so convincingly was very pleasing.

"First of all we won the fight, we won a lot of second balls, we pressed them hard and made a lot of chances.

"Overall 2-0 was a good result for us and a fair result, because we could have scored more goals."

Coleman said finishing ninth in the Premiership last season had helped him attract the likes of Andy Cole, who scored two goals on his return to Craven Cottage - he had a spell on loan there from Arsenal as a youngster - as well as Diop and Tomasz Radzinski.

And he had special praise for ex-Wanderer, Claus Jensen, who moved across London from Charlton in the summer for £1.25m - less than a third of the price Wanderers received when he moved to The Valley four years ago.

"He's a quality player, a class act," Coleman said of the Denmark midfielder, who has played in World Cup and European Championship finals since leaving the Reebok.

"He was a bit tired because he played in midweek for Denmark and it was touch and go whether he was going to play. He had a fitness test on Saturday morning because he had a tight hamstring but he wanted to play.

"I'm delighted because he put on a really good display."