Sam Always Had The Faith

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce remained positive during the Wanderers bleak run in December and always had faith that he could turn fortune back in the Trotters favour.

Allardyce saw his side lose all of their games in December and plummet down the Premiership table, but good form in both January and early February has seen the club back in contention for a European place.

"As a manager, you blame yourself first and foremost when things go wrong. You question yourself but, in the end, experience plays a massive part in dealing with the situation.

"I had to forget the outside world and switch off from all the criticism that came with the poor results. I had to try to stay on an even keel and keep my belief that what had worked for me before would work again."

Despite the bad results from the Christmas run, Allardyce says that his computer statistics where not as bad as results on the park portrayed and he always made the players beleive that the rut would not continue.

"It wasn't as bad as it looked to the outside world. I gave the players hope by showing them they were still getting a lot of things right, even though we weren't winning.

"The database gave me the ammunition to show them that the bad run would not continue. In the end we turned our season round like I hoped and believed we would.

"I can plan for a certain group of fixtures and feel we should do reasonably well. I can look at another group and think that we might not win at all but soccer doesn't happen like that.

"The unpredictability is a drug for everybody because no-one knows what is going to happen where or when, however much planning you do. That's why last December happened."