SAM Allardyce is worried that the joy of returning to Craven Cottage could put Fulham on a high in Saturday's Premiership duel.

A carnival atmosphere is expected at the West London ground with Fulham returning after two years of ground-sharing with QPR.

The celebrations could prove a distraction for Chris Coleman's side, but Allardyce fears they could be inspired returning to their spiritual home.

"It could escalate them into a huge performance," the Reebok boss said in a stark warning to his players.

"Everybody's glad to be back at The Cottage. It was pretty decrepit when they left, whereas QPR was a nice compact ground that was always full and always had a decent atmosphere.

"But it's right to go back home."

Allardyce draws no encouragement from knowing that Fulham could only draw at Manchester City in their first game while Wanderers were thrashing Charlton. He respects Coleman, the rookie manager who guided the unfashionable London club to ninth last season and only expects things to settle down after 10 games or so.

"It was great to get off to a good start, as we did, but there will be some weird results in the first five or six matches," he said. "We wouldn't have expected to beat Charlton 4-1 but we deserved to do so. But it doesn't really even itself out until after six to 10 games.

"Norwich, West Brom or Crystal Palace will have a flyer in the first 10 matches -- like we did and like Portsmouth did -- but it evens itself out. Reality kicks in and all of a sudden the pressures and the tensions, fatigue and injuries makes it more difficult.

"At the moment everybody's fresh. It's not the same when they get to November and December and they don't want to get out of bed."

Praising Coleman's adjustment to the management game, without the huge sums of transfer cash afforded to his predecessors, Allardyce added: "He lives under the same cosh as us all now. Mohamad Al Fayed is no longer the benefactor he used to be. That seems to have long gone and now he seems to be living on the income that football brings, like we all do.

"He (Coleman) had to do that last year and they showed great maturity, Chris and his staff, in moulding a team with very good team spirit, which is what we all need.