"At least we don't have to play Blackburn again!" the Wanderers' boss suggested, acknowledging Rovers' superiority but refusing to concede defeat in the race for the second automatic promotion place.

The Reebok boss accepts that Graeme Souness has a strong, talented squad at his disposal and have hit a rich vein of form at just the right time.

But that's no reason to throw in the towel -- not with Birmingham going off the rails and Blackburn having a tough run-in.

As they showed at Nottingham Forest, Bolton have no intention of surrendering the second place they have held since December 9 without a fight.

A single win in nine games - one in seven in the league - while Rovers and Birmingham were riding winning waves had knocked confidence on and off the field - to the point where the players were booed off after their last home appearance. They went to the City Ground knowing that if results went against them, they could have dropped from second to fourth - a major psychological blow!

They didn't just hold their lead, they turned goal difference into a clear points advantage again, a consequence of getting back to doing what they do best - defending solidly and counter-attacking swiftly and decisively.

It's an approach that has served them well on their travels, paving the way to 11 away victories - just one short of the all-time club record.

But, if they are to continue to defy the doubters who have written them off as nothing more than play-off fodder, they are going to have to produce the goods at the Reebok. And that is something they haven't managed in recent weeks.

They are going to have to take 21 points from their remaining nine games if they are to hit the manager's target of 92 points (two per game) and with five of those games being at home, there's going to have to be a significant upturn in form and fortune if the Reebok is going to be a help rather than a hindrance.

Wimbledon, Stockport, Birmingham, Norwich and Sheffield United will make it a tough home run for Bolton -- arguably a tougher series than the four away games, at Crewe, Norwich, Barnsley and Wolves.

"It's not in the make-up of this team to fall away," Dean Holdsworth insisted after netting his 200th career goal. "You can knock us as much as you like but we've still got what it takes."

If they are forced to settle for a play-off place, Wanderers might just live to regret dropping a handful of home points in recent weeks against teams in the lower reaches. But Allardyce looks at events from glass-half-full rather than half-empty perspective, pointing out that they came from two goals down to draw with Huddersfield and twice trailed to Grimsby before settling for another 2-2 scoreline.

"The Gillingham one was the big one," he concedes. "We had it sorted at 3-1 and had we got the three points we should have got we'd have been really forcing the pace against the rest.

"That was definitely two points dropped but, although we only managed to get a point each from the Grimsby and Huddersfield games, we were behind in them and you could say they were points gained. They could prove to be important points at the final reckoning."

Allardyce saw fit to take what he described as "radical" action in dropping Per Frandsen, Bo Hansen, Gareth Farrelly and Michael Ricketts after the Gillingham game; he has since solved his goalkeeping problems with the signing of Bradford's Matt Clarke on loan and beefed up his midfield with the addition of Torino midfielder Dijbril Diawara.

He was already confident his squad's character would shine through. Now he feels he has the strength in depth to secure the seven clean sheets he reckons will be enough to see off the competition.

Nothing's guaranteed, of course, apart from the fact that there's every chance there will be more twists in the tale before anything's decided.