SAM Allardyce is thanking his lucky stars that Wanderers have made another good start to the season.

The Whites enjoyed the rub of the green at Manchester City last weekend, but it was a victory Allardyce believes could prove priceless as the Premiership hots up.

Now he is urging his players to cash in on their good fortune and bank more points at the Reebok on Saturday, when they take on a Portsmouth side reeling from a Carling Cup giantkilling that has left the future of their French manager, Alain Perrin, hanging in the balance.

"I'm not being disrespecful to Portsmouth, but this should be a big opportunity for us to capitalise on what we've done up to now and continue our brilliant start to the season," Allardyce said.

Wanderers had their best ever start to a Premiership season a year ago when they took 21 points from the first 11 games. It was to stand them in good stead, even when they suffered a potentially damaging sequence of results, including six successive defeats, in November and December.

Despite taking just three points from a possible 30, which ultimately cost them a Champions League place, they dropped no lower than 14th, and were in a position to rally again to finish sixth their best ever Premiership performance.

Now Allardyce is looking to build similar safeguards to insure against any future problems.

"It's been a brilliant start and that makes life so much easier," he said, encouraged by a haul of 11 points from six games that has put Wanderers fourth in the table.

"We all know how important it is to get off to a good start. When you have points in the bank, you can afford to have a bad result or two, further down the line, knowing it's not going to send you down to the bottom and that really takes the pressure off."

Wanderers know they must perform better than they did against City on Sunday, when they rode a lorry load of luck before Gary Speed snatched a 1-0 victory with a last gasp penalty, and they will need to show a sharper cutting edge than in their last Premiership appearance at the Reebok, when they were held to a scoreless draw by Blackburn. But they will be aware that problems are starting to pile-up for Pompey and Perrin, who was only appointed in April but was booed from the field after seeing his side beaten 3-2 by League One strugglers, Gillingham, on Tuesday night.

Lomana LuaLua and Laurent Robert are expected to return to boost Pompey's prospects while Allardyce, who will be missing Ivan Campo for up to eight weeks with a broken foot, hopes Jay Jay Okocha and Abdoulaye Faye will be available for selection.