SAM Allardyce sang the praises of his happy Wanderers today then asked them for more.

The Reebok boss described Saturday's 1--1 draw at Arsenal as "the best result of the season" suggesting that his players "now almost believe they won't get beat".

But he knows his old mate, Peter Reid, will have Sunderland fired up for Saturday's visit to the Reebok after taking just one point from their last two home games.

"The point at Arsenal was a bonus for us," Allardyce insisted, "just like the points we took off Liverpool and Arsenal.

"The bread and butter is games like Southampton at home , which we lost. Now we must make sure we take some points off my old mate, Reidy. It's no use doing all that hard work with 10 men at Arsenal if we don't do the job right against Sunderland."

Allardyce enthused over his team's performance at Highbury where they were a man down after 30 minutes as a consequence of Ricardo Gardner's controversial sending off and a goal behind when their defences were finally breached by Francis Jeffers 16 minutes from time.

He had good reason to praise a range of individuals too, including 21-year-old Jamaican international Jermaine Johnson - handed a surprise debut just three days after completing his transfer from Tivoli Gardens - and substitutes Michael Ricketts and Rod Wallace, who combined to conjure up the spectacular equaliser seven minutes from time.

But he reserved special praise for his defence and, in particular, the centre-back pairing of Gudni Bergsson and Mike Whitlow.

"We had 10 men for much of the time but Gudni and Mike Whitlow defended absolutely superbly," the manager said. "They marshalled the threat of Wiltord and Henry magnificently and the threat of Bergkamp coming from deep.

"The whole back four and the goalkeeper were fantastic."

Opportunity

Explaining his decision to start with top scorer Ricketts on the subs' bench and hand Dean Holdsworth his first start of the season, Allardyce said: "Michael needed a rest. He'd played in all the games in the league and we felt as a singular striker, which he has been for most of the time, and getting used to the Premiership, it was time for Dean to come in purely and simply to hold the ball up for us when we had the opportunity to break.

"And there's nothing better, of course, when you make substitutions and they get you the goals."

The manager added: "Jermaine Johnson's debut was outstanding. When we did get forward our limited opportunities came through him and that was excellent.

"The whole squad's getting better and building quite nicely now."