SAM Allardyce admits his Blackpool nightmare could have broken him but has instead used the hurt to drive him on to becoming a Premier League success.

The Rovers manager was unceremoniously axed as Blackpool boss after leading them to their best season for 18 years back in 1996, having missed out on promotion to the second tier by a point and then play-off failure.

Now, as Allardyce prepares for his Bloomfield Road return with Blackburn Rovers tomorrow afternoon, he reflects on his ‘lowest point in football’ and how the devastation turned into a desire to prove the Tangerines wrong.

He said: “In the early stages it was a bewilderment. I was staring into space for a while, not knowing what to do with my life and not knowing how to cope or deal with it.

“It left me wanting to prove people wrong, because they made a decision you think they shouldn’t have made. So instead of letting them look back in later years and say I told you so, I look back and say that was the wrong thing you did. It gave me a stronger desire and a stronger determination to prove them wrong.

“I probably could have stayed in the businesses I had at the time FROM BACK PAGE and focused on them more, but I really had a burning desire that I had the capability of being a very good manager.”

Allardyce’s two-year spell at Blackpool was his first stint as a permanent manager, having impressed previously as caretaker boss at Preston, and took them to third place in Division Two.

Since being sacked by chairman Owen Oyston, who was in prison at the time of the decision, Allardyce has more than proved his worth during spells at Notts County, Bolton and Rovers – but he admits it remains the lowest point of his career.

He said: “At the end I was bitterly disappointed. It was a devastating time in my life. I think he taught me to be more ruthless. It taught me to make sure you cover all the angles you possibly can to do the job, so you have left no stone unturned.

“It was only after a really good holiday that I cleared my head and got my act back together. On that holiday I did a bit of self analysis and thought where I am going to get a job?

“I didn’t expect defeat in the play-offs to mean the sack. Phil Brown left to go to Bolton as assistant in the Premier League and I ended up going on holiday to Spain.

“There were times when I thought do I need this? No body decides when I leave football, in my own determination and own mind. As I am as a person if someone does something to me that I think is wrong then that is not going to be the end of it.

“I don’t take retribution on them I just go back and do what I do and hopefully when the time comes it will be me who decides it doesn’t want football anymore not somebody else.”

With the Oyston family still very much involved at Premier League new-boys Blackpool, it would be easy for Allardyce to harbour a grudge ahead of tomorrow’e reunion.

But he insists those days are now well behind him as he focuses solely on helping Rovers a crucial three points.

“It does not rankle with me much at all, much like my time at Newcastle doesn’t,” he said. “Life moves on and you have top get on with your life. To hold grudges is not my style.

“I look to the future not the past. I rarely look at my scrapbooks, videos or photos, that is for my wife and family.

"I focus on making the future better than the past and hopefully that will be the case still.”