SAM Allardyce confirmed today that he is prepared to make allowances for Michael Ricketts as long as he continues to score the goals that will keep Wanderers away from the Premiership danger zone.

The Reebok boss revealed he has had cause to mildly chastise his prolific top scorer since he snapped him up from Walsall for the princely sum of £400,000 and has never allowed him to take his first team berth for granted.

He has seen fit to question his work rate and his temperament but he has never doubted his goalscoring ability.

Now, after seeing Ricketts produce further evidence of his top flight credentials with his matchwinner in Saturday's 2-1 win at Old Trafford, Big Sam believes his young goal star is maturing nicely.

"He had this slight streak about not working hard enough at times," Allardyce admitted, "but we'll cope with that because when the chance comes along Michael is fresh enough to take it.

"Sometimes we ask for more work rate but the work rate's got an awful lot better, his temperament's got an awful lot better - he got booked five times for dissent last year - and his goalscoring ratio in the Premiership is now very, very good."

Ricketts, who took his season's total to six with his 84th minute derby strike, was dropped to substitute at Arsenal, where he came off the bench to rescue a point with a spectacular late equaliser. But even that was not enough to convince Allardyce that he should have his place back and he stayed on the bench.

Fresh and sharp

"He started the first five but I felt he was a little bit tired with the pace of the Premiership and needed to come out for a rest and Dean Holdsworth went in," the manager explained.

"He came off the subs bench a couple of times and didn't really produce - apart from at Arsenal - but he played from start to finish on Saturday and looked fresh and sharp.

"He's cool, he's not flustered and I've been saying since he joined us that he's an outstanding finisher of all types of goals. He's as calm with a chance as he is when he's not got a chance. That's the difference between being a finisher and not being a finisher. Some of our players will get in that position, like Ricardo Gardner did, and get uptight and wound up and end up missing. Michael doesn't, he relaxes, composes himself and he picks the right spot.

"It never crossed my mind that he would miss."

Ricketts, who blamed his earlier "miss" on Phil Neville's last gasp intervention ("I didn't touch the ball in the end!" he revealed) used his knowledge of United's suspect defence to take full advantage of his late chance which came courtsey of Jussi Jaaskelainen's giant clearance.

"I noticed Wes Brown didn't head many balls so I took my chance to toe poke it past him and was lucky," he said.

"When I found myself through on goal, Barthez stood up so I waited for him to dive. I've watched him a few times and he likes to stand up."

Delighted to have played such a significant role in a famous derby triumph, Ricketts added: "We needed to stop the rot of defeats. We had a game plan and we stuck to it. A point would have been magnificent ... but we weren't fazed and this was a great victory."