ALAN Hansen is tipping Sam Allardyce to give Jose Mourinho a run for his money in the manager of the year awards.

The respected BBC pundit is a big admirer of the work Big Sam has done in shaping Wanderers into genuine contenders for a top four spot and believes Champions League qualification would match anything Mourinho has done at big-spending Chelsea.

"Jose Mourinho is a sure-fire winner of manager of the year," Hansen said, acknowledging the Stamford Bridge boss's achievements in his first Premiership season, "but, if Bolton get into the Champions League, you can make a strong case for Sam Allardyce.

"He has performed another difficult trick in that he has fostered a wonderful team spirit, despite a cosmopolitan make-up of his squad.

"He has also got in older, foreign players and got them to play - not easy and a real tribute to his man-management.

"Some foreign players of a certain age take the money and run, but Allardyce has inspired them, and clearly given them the sort of contracts that make them play without dishing out too many long-term deals."

Hansen, the former Liverpool and Scotland centre-back whose forthright views have become a cornerstone of the BBC's Match of the Day flagship programme, believes the race for fourth place is now more intriguing than the title chase, with Chelsea having turned the Premiership into a procession.

Wanderers' top four ambitions were dealt a blow on Wednesday night when Everton beat Manchester United at Goodison to strengthen their grip on fourth place and Liverpool won at Portsmouth to move back into fifth. But, with Everton due at the Reebok on the last day of the season, Allardyce and his Whites are still shooting for a Champions League spot.

Hansen likes their character and their style.

"I am a huge admirer of Allardyce and Bolton," he said in his regular feature on the BBC Sport website. "It's even more amazing given the fact that they had a catastrophic run of defeats earlier in the season.

"Allardyce has done an unbelievable job at that club and I'm not interested in those who carp about Bolton's style of play either.

"Bolton are accused of having a direct style but let's get this straight, when Chelsea beat Bayern Munich at Stamford Bridge they played in exactly the same fashion.

"The idea of football is to play to your strengths and exploit potential weaknesses in the opposition.

"We had a reputation for playing what would be labelled 'attractive' football at Liverpool, but no less a manager than Bob Paisley would say 'if an opposition's weakness is the high ball into the box, pummel them.'

"If it's within the rules, which it is, then people should just let Bolton get on with it. I've seen Bolton play a lot of matches that have been great to watch, so I don't have a problem with them."

England U16 international, Robert Sissons, scored a last minute equaliser to earn Wanderers Reserves a 1-1 draw at Sunderland on Wednesday night. Former Reebok striker, Michael Bridges, gave the Black Cats a first-half lead.