Bolton love mixing it with the big boys
Allardyce sends his side into today's s north-west derby at the Reebok Stadium knowing they will still be above Alex Ferguson's men in the Premiership table, even if they lose.
It is an astounding situation for the homespun Wanderers, who Allardyce has transformed since replacing Colin Todd as manager almost five years ago.
Yet the Trotters chief who snubbed the Newcastle job last week believes the current position is more to do with United's ongoing injury crisis rather than the form of his own side.
And while he recognises any game against the Red Devils is a difficult one, Allardyce does accept Bolton have an opportunity to kick United when they are down.
"You always felt it would be difficult for Alex and his team purely because of the number of players missing through injury and suspension and that has proved to be the case," said the Bolton boss.
"They have kicked in so early, it has left what is a big squad looking pretty short.
"Having said that, Roy Keane, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wes Brown are back in training and when you put those three in, they look somewhat more formidable.
"But in the past, we have always produced our best performances against the big boys.
"We don't expect to do it consistently but we beat Chelsea away from home last season and gave Arsenal a tough game.
"On any given day, if we play to our best we can get a result against anyone. Hopefully, we can continue to do that tomorrow."
Ruud van Nistelrooy will give Ferguson some much-needed respite from his early season injury crisis by returning to the fold.
Gary Neville, Louis Saha and John O'Shea are the latest victims after picking up knocks on World Cup duty over the past week that have ruled them out of the Reebok Stadium trip.
Even new arrival Wayne Rooney will not be available for at least another three weeks as he continues his recovery from the broken foot he suffered during Euro 2004.
The situation will almost certainly force Ferguson into handing Gabriel Heinze his debut even though the Argentine defender only met most of his team-mates for the first time on Thursday.
And the Scot is also toying with the idea of starting with Van Nistelrooy, whose goal threat has been badly missed by a side who have scored just three times in four Premiership games so far this season.
The prolific Dutchman has netted 110 times in his three seasons with the Red Devils but has not played a competitive game this season following his hernia operation last month.
So, after 10 days training, Ferguson is more likely to take the safe option of putting Van Nistelrooy on the bench.
"Ruud is very close," said Ferguson.
"He has done everything we have asked of him in training over the last 10 days and now he just needs to get back into football again.
"It is a major decision what to do with him tomorrow but maybe putting him on the bench would be the sensible thing."
Van Nistelrooy's presence in the squad, particularly with Wednesday's Champions League opener in Lyon looming, would at least give Ferguson some kind of striking option.
Alan Smith has carried the fight alone for most of the campaign and, with Saha suffering a recurrence of his troublesome knee injury in France's victory over the Faroe Islands on Wednesday, the former Leeds striker will again shoulder the burden against Sam Allardyce's third-placed side.
It is in defence, though, where Ferguson faces his major problems.
In addition to O'Shea and Neville, who the United boss hopes will be back against Lyon, Wes Brown and Quinton Fortune have also been ruled out, while Rio Ferdinand's eight-month ban does not expire for another 11 days.
Ferguson must therefore give Heinze his chance, even though the Scot previously indicated his new defender was putting his entire United career in jeopardy by jetting off on almost two months of constant international duty with Argentina that took in Copa America, the Olympics and World Cup qualifiers.
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