SAM Allardyce believes the seeds of Wanderers' sensational opening day win at Leicester were sown last season.

The Reebok boss, who admitted his first experience of Premiership football was an emotional one, was as surprised as anyone at the margin of victory.

But he reckoned: "It was a carry over from our superb away form last season when we won 14 and broke the club record.

"We've shown that we haven't forgotten how we achieved that."

Wanderers used the fluid 4-5-1 cum 4-3-3 formation, which served them so well en route to promotion, laying the foundation with a solid defence then demoralising the Foxes with a succession of impressive strikes.

"Leicester struggled towards the end of last season and you could see their lack of confidence when the second goal went in while we are full of confidence after what we achieved last season.

"It was an emotional game and the fans were magnificent. I'm delighted we gave them something to cheer. We played with a lot of heart and a lot of confidence.

"It's the first game of the season and there are usually some surprise results ... and this one surprised me as much as anyone else. But we deserved it. We were solid at the back, nullified any threat Leicester had and started to pick them off as we did to so many teams last season.

"The quality of our finishing was absolutely outstanding. There's no such thing as a bad goal but there wasn't a scrappy one out of the lot. The three free kicks were superb - we'd practiced the one Kevin scored from - and Michael Ricketts showed what a great finisher he is. The top corner was probably the only place he could have hit."

Yet Wanderers went into the game under pressure from the critics and handicapped by injuries and illness which kept out Colin Hendry, Gareth Farrelly, Djibril Diawara and Akinori Nishizawa.

"It tested the squad to the full," Big Sam acknowledged. "We finished up with a starting 11 who were all with us last season and those 11 and the substitutes were magnificent.

"But it is early days and nobody is getting carried away. Things tend to even themselves out over six to eight games and we have games against Liverpool, Leeds, Arsenal and Manchester United coming up very, very quickly.

"We'll know more after we have played them but it has been a fantastic start."

And an immensely satisfying one for a manager and a team who would dearly love to prove wrong the pundits and the prophets of doom who have them marked down for an instant return to the Nationwide League.

Allardyce regards the critics as a motivating force: "They've not only been talking about us going down but saying we're going to finish bottom of the three. This has been a slap in the face for them. Let's hope there are a few more to come."