Sam's on a winner

Match report by BEN Chief Soccer Writer Gordon Sharrock A YEAR since his predecessor saw fit to quit because he felt Bolton Wanderers could no longer satisfy his ambitions, Sam Allardyce is sitting pretty in the Reebok hot seat.

The big man fidgets uncomfortably from time to time - especially when he looks at his casualty list or the workload of administration keeps him away from the training pitch - but he can draw satisfaction from knowing that, since the days of crisis following Colin Todd's walkout, he has repaired the club's damaged pride, restored its shattered confidence and returned it to a position of respectability.

The financial constraints that proved the last straw for the previous manager are still evident - hence the sale of £10 million worth of talent and the current 'make do and mend' policy of team building.

Nevertheless, in the 42 league games of his stewardship, Wanderers have taken 80 points - enough to almost certainly guarantee automatic promotion, if the season ran from October to September!

August to May is what counts, of course, and Big Sam is no fool. "Those statistics staggered me," he admitted, "I hadn't quite realised how well we'd done since I've been here. If we'd had that all in one season, we'd have been promoted.

"But we've only played seven games this season and, although it's been a fantastic start, we won't know what sort of a season we're going to have until we've played about 12."

Nevertheless, he will take his happy Wanderers to Blackburn on Saturday for what promises to be their toughest test of the season so far, knowing confidence could not be higher.

Thanks to another two examples of Premiership finishing from a strikeforce that is maintaining a staggeringly high ratio of goals scored to chances created, they are on the crest of a six-match winning wave.

Portsmouth threatened an upset on Saturday and it would have been just typical of Wanderers, after three record-breaking wins on the road, to have come undone at the Reebok. But they're made of stern stuff these days - defiant and determined - and quality strikes from Dean Holdsworth and Michael Ricketts sent the vanquished but still voluminous away fans back on the long haul home to the chorus of "What a waste of petrol!"

You can still find Bolton fans - even players - pinching themselves to make sure they aren't dreaming: a season they were repeatedly led to believe would be a struggle is looking like a cakewalk. Drawing at home to Burnley on the opening day didn't augur well but since then it's been success all the way, matching Fulham and Watford - two of the four 'big-hitters' Allardyce repeatedly refers to - stride for winning stride.

And that with three key members of the squad - Franck Passi, Isaiah Rankin and Ian Marshall - on short term deals to tide them over their manpower crisis. Some crisis!

Wanderers are not playing convincingly well, it has to be said, and they are riding their luck. If Lee Mills had been slightly more accurate, had big Darren Moore reacted a split-second quicker or Jussi Jaaskelainen not managed to get his fingertips to a Ceri Hughes screamer, they'd have been deservedly punished for a lackadaisical first half performance.

They seemed content just to let things happen rather than make things happen and, on another day, might have lived to regret a couple of missed opportunities - Holdsworth producing a surprisingly tame shot to squander the best, set up by the impressive Per Frandsen, then Bo Hansen miss-kicking when he looked certain to net his first goal of the season.

But Holdsworth has never been deterred by failure and he duly atoned for his miss - superb control taking out two defenders before a clinical finish - to ensure Wanderers went in at half-time with their noses in front.

One impressive feature of the season to date has been Allardyce's use of substitutes and, once again, all three replacements made vital contributions.

The incredible Ricketts is making a habit of it and it came as no surprise to see him maintain his record of scoring in every game he has entered from the subs' bench. His sixth goal in 22 days was no less impressive than any of the others, rounding off a move Kevin Nolan started with his first touch of the ball with a step inside the retreating Moore and a left foot shot that gave Rusell Hoult in the Pompey goal less chance than if he'd tried to stop a runaway train!

More superlatives and yet more headlines for the summer signing from Walsall, who can never have dreamed of making such an impact as this. Yet it was the performance of Ian Marshall, the odd job man who is paid by the game, that gave Allardyce most satisfaction.

"That second goal was very important to us," the manager acknowledged, "but, in terms of substitutions, Ian Marshall was much much better than Michael because I felt Mark Fish was tiring and struggling a little bit.

"Marshy came on and, where we'd looked a bit vulnerable, he won every single ball for us and gave us a more solid base, a more solid unit to work on in that second half."

Pompey had ceased to be a threat long before Ricketts wrapped it up five minutes from time and the victory, although hard-earned, looked a comfortable one in the end.

Wanderers do not have the depth of talent they had when Todd took them to the Premiership or, the year after relegation, to the 1999 play-off final. Performances are not as expansive or as slick but there is steel where there was vulnerability, effectiveness where there was often unfulfilled expectation and, after the turmoil of a year ago, strength of character that could easily have been damaged beyond repair.

They are bracing themselves for the showdowns with Blackburn, Fulham and Watford over the course of a potentially exhausting month, knowing they are the games on which they should be judged. The worry is that the absence of injured stars - Paul Warhurst, Robbie Elliott and Mike Whitlow - will prove too much of a handicap.

But Graeme Souness, Jean Tigana and Graham Taylor know what Allardyce has achieved; they will see six successive wins and, if they don't fear Wanderers, they will certainly respect them.