Safety first!

Proud that his team is earning credit for the quality of their football as well as respect for the results that have taken them to second in the table, the Wanderers boss warned today that he won't be throwing caution to the wind.

"We're not going down there to entertain the Wimbledon fans," he insisted. "We're going there to get a result.

"I want us to spoil their Christmas and keep their home form as miserable as we can.

"Our away form has been exceptionally good this season, apart from the odd hiccup. We lost at Sheffield United when we shouldn't have done and beat Norwich, which we deserved. We haven't quite turned as many performances into results away from home lately but it's a result I'm looking for on Saturday ... not a performance."

Wimbledon continue to frustrate their most loyal followers - not to mention manager Terry Burton. Scintillating on Saturday when they won 3-0 at Birmingham to notch their seventh away win of the season, they were held 2-2 by struggling Grimsby in front of a miserable 4,489 crowd at Selhurst Park last night and can still only boast one home win!

Coach Stewart Robson, in charge of the team while Burton was recovering from a minor operation, confessed: "We deserve the boos with a home record like ours.

"With such a low crowd, the atmosphere wasn't good but the players should block that from their minds."

Allardyce must decide whether to find a place in his starting line-up for Colin Hendry, who started a three-month loan from Coventry this week.

If he does, he will have to break up the Gudni Bergsson-Paul Warhurst partnership, which has helped Wanderers secure four wins in five games since the departure of Mark Fish last month.

Hendry, who has not played regular first team football this season, is more likely to be given a place on the subs' bench.

Nottingham Forest missed out on a chance to draw level on points with Wanderers last night when they crashed to a shock 3-1 home defeat by lowly Huddersfield.