Allardyce: 'I Will Do It MY Way'!

Saturday 15th December 2007
Fulham v Newcastle 17.15

Sunday 23rd December 2007
Newcastle v Derby 14.00

Wednesday 26th December 2007
Wigan Athletic v Newcastle 15.00

The Magpies head into Saturday's Premier League clash with Birmingham at St James' Park looking for their first win in seven attempts. But Big Sam says his "experience" will get him through.

The knives were out for Allardyce in certain quarters as the Gunners headed north, but while he admitted he had been losing sleep in the run-up to the game, he insisted his self-belief never deserted him.

Allardyce: "For me in my position, I am experienced enough to handle whatever comes my way because I have been in it so long and I have dealt with it for so long.

"It is getting more and more scrutinised and more and more pressure comes on, but all you have to do is make sure you can handle that pressure and do what you know is right.

"You do not listen to outside influences, you do not listen to speculation.

"You know you are a good manager, you know what you are doing and you stick to it. You do not let the distractions put you off.

"When you do, or when the players do, that's when you get poor performances and poor results.

"It is a very specialised area now and you need to be in an extremely knowledgeable and experienced position to be able to handle today's Premier League.

"If you make it more volatile, then you make it very difficult to cope with the pressure that comes with it.

"For me, it has always been about breeding our own and there are many good young managers down in the lower divisions who deserve to get a chance to come up here one way or the other.

"They should really come up here by showing what they can do at that level, but that does not happen for them any more, so they get disillusioned."