Blackburn FA Cup flops will be axed, warns new boss Sam Allardyce

Sam Allardyce remains haunted by the FA Cup nightmare that almost killed his managerial career before it had really begun.

Now he warns Blackburn Rovers' fringe players that they, too, risk finding themselves dumped if they put him through another non-league horror show.

The new Ewood Park boss takes his team to Croft Park and a clash with Blue Square North minnows Blyth Spartans having already decided to cash in on Roque Santa Cruz, an £18m target for Manchester City.

But he vows he'll ditch any of his fringe players who don't measure up, saying: "Some of the players involved will not have played for me yet but will have played for Blackburn Rovers this season.

"I want to see what they can do, I want to see them tell me that they are worth me selecting them when the opportunity comes along. Otherwise I will be putting a cross in thebox instead of a tick."

And the idea that the tie is somehow romantic makes Allardyce's skin crawl.

He was Brian Talbot's assistant manager at West Brom, then in Division Two and fighting relegation, when Woking arrived from nowhere to beat them in 1991.

He shudders at the memory: "I was sat in the dug out, thinking 'Oh, my, God!' It was horrendous, awful. The threat had been there for me and Brian all year and that finished us off.

"We had been hanging on in the league. One win and we would be all right. Lose one and we were going to get sacked. And after Woking we were.

"That was the reason I ended up at Limerick. I couldn't get back into football. I was nearly lost to football forever at that stage.

"So you can keep the romance of the FA Cup. It could have finished me because no-one else wanted me as a coach - there was only Limerick.

"I got sacked in the January after that third-round game and didn't get the Limerick job until the August. That was a horrendous time."

Allardyce insists that if Rovers do get themselves knocked out by Blyth it won't be because they will have had to rough it - not like he and his players did in Ireland.

He says: "Going there won't be quite as spart an as Limerick.

We had horses pegged out in the field next to the pitch. The press box was an old starting gate for greyhounds.

We had a breeze block wall around the pitch.

"But I enjoyed myself there. Winning matches is what you are in the game for and we won the championship easily.

"It's all about positive mental attitude, accepting the surroundings and making sure you lift yourself and perform."

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