SAM Allardyce maintained today that he will continue to make brave team selections in an effort to keep Wanderers on course for success on the domestic and European fronts.

The Reebok boss believes victories over Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the UEFA Cup and at Manchester City in the Premiership in the space of four days have justified his decision to adopt a bold squad rotation system.

And he is convinced that is the way forward.

"We've been planning it for a while,"Allardyce said after Gary Speed's last-minute penalty saw Wanderers claim an unbelievable 1-0 victory at the City of Manchester Stadium yesterday.

"The big thing, from my point of view, is having to be brave enough.

"I know it sounds like blowing my own trumpet but it's about leaving people out and putting other people in to find out what they can do.

"That was why we won the game yesterday. Yes, we were lucky, but we used the squad, which we knew we would have to do."

Only four players Jussi Jaaskelainen, Bruno N'Gotty. El-Hadji Diouf and Radhi Jaidi who had played the full 90 minutes against Plovdiv, were included in yesterdays starting line-up. Jay Jay Okocha (ankle) and Fabrice Fernandes (hamstring) were injured, Nicky Hunt was rested and Ivan Campo, Ricardo Gardner and Hidetoshi Nakata were dropped to the subs bench along with Jared Borgetti.

Abdoulaye Faye was unfortunate to have to withdraw at half time with a groin injury, having impressed in the first half, but Allardyce's use of his substitutes Gardner and Nakata in particular gave Wanderers the chance to regroup and test City's defence when they were in danger of being over-run.

Even so, Stuart Pearce's Blues could not believe their luck as they were denied by the woodwork five times and found Jussi Jaaskelainen in sensational form in the Bolton goal.

Allardyce acknowledged that Wanderers were fortunate to still be in the game when referee Mike Dean awarded the decisive penalty in the third minute of injury time, when City defender, Richard Dunne, handled the ball. But he claimed the victory, on the back of their dramatic 2-1 win against Plovdiv at the Reebok, would send a message to their Premiership rivals that Wanderers can cope with the demands of European football and still be a force in the league.

"This was such a big victory for us," he said. "City are an in-form side, having had a great start to the season. They've been playing well while we had to cope with having played in Europe on Thursday night before taking on a team that already had 11 points on the board.

"Beating them has put us on 11 and into the top four or five in the Premiership and that makes a massive statement to this league about Bolton Wanderers and what they are trying to achieve on less (resources) than most.

"We knew it would be a huge effort to get a result at Manchester City because of their start and the fact that our efforts in the UEFA Cup had made us less sharp and a little more fatigued than them.

"I didn't think we would have to defend as much as we had to, but we managed to get the all-important clean sheet as lucky as it might have been and when we woke up today the scoreline said 1-0 to Bolton and three clean sheets out of six.

"We only kept two clean sheets in the first 22 games last season so, if we continue with that ratio, we're going to be in the top half again and getting into Europe again!"