SAM Allardyce was delighted to be proved wrong as Wanderers got off to a dream start to the new season with the most comprehensive of victories over Charlton Athletic.
Just 24 hours earlier he confessed that he was going into the first game with his fingers crossed, fearing his squad was neither strong enough nor well-enough prepared.
He had serious reservations about his attack's poor conversion rate and acknowledged that, without more fire-power, Wanderers would struggle this season.
But he emerged from the dressing room to pay tribute to his players for producing what he described as a "top end" team performance.
"We laid a few nerves to rest," he said. "I was delighted with the level of fitness, the quality of the play and the direction of the team in knowing when and where to play ... for 95 per cent of the time they got it right and it caused Charlton Athletic a huge amount of problems.
"We were a lot better than I imagined our fitness to be. I hought we might have tired a little bit but we didn't, That's probably because the quality of our play kept us going.
"The fans being behind us and the players playing well allowed us to express ourselves more than we thought we might be able to at the start of the season.
"The only thing we struggled with to any great degree last year was turning opportunities into goals, so scoring four is a huge bonus for the players and for me."
He still has concerns about the strength of his squad and its ability to cope with a heavy workload in the opening weeks of the season. Seven players -- Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Ricardo Gardner, Gary Speed, Stelios, Tal Ben Haim and Radhi Jaidi -- are away on international duty this week and will
only return on Thursday at the earliest to prepare for two tough away games in four days -- at Fulham on Saturday and Southampton next Tuesday.
"That's going to be a huge test of the squad," he said, "but this has got us off to a great start."
Wanderers had Charlton on the rack before Jay-Jay Okocha thumped in a terrific free kick to put them ahead on 10 minutes then went on to dominate the Addicks with the captain celebrating his 31st birthday with a second goal and Henrik Pedersen helping himself to a brace.
"The quality of the goals was pleasing," Allardyce said. "I like a few scrappy goals but all four were well-taken and, of course, the best one was the first one.
"You'll go a long way this season to better that free kick -- a long, long way.
"He didn't score in the Premiership last season so's he's already two ahead and Henrik is already two close to the nine he scored."
Okocha and Pedersen took the scoring honours but Allardyce paid special tribute to Gary Speed, who had an impressive debut following his £750,000 summer move from Newcastle, showing he has quickly developed an understanding with his team-mates and, in particular, his midfield partners Okocha and Ivan Campo.
He said: "Gary Speed is a quality player who could have joined many clubs other than us. But he saw that we were going places and that we have grown over the last few years.
"His all-round quality is an extra for us. He will provide opportunities for others as well as scoring goals himself.
"The three (midfield players) will be a major force if they can stay together because they are all top end Premiership quality.
"The rest of the team around them played to their best, which was outstanding. I just hope we can keep that up at Fulham.
"We've got to be consistent. We know how difficult the Premiership is. We've got off to a magnificent start but we've got to do that week in, week out."
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