THE next 16 days could be crucial to Wanderers' hopes of success season writes Neil Bonnar

Sam Allardyce leads his team into action in the league and two cups during the next two weeks.

And the Reebok boss desperately wants his side to emerge from the five-game spell still fighting on all three fronts.

In the past Wanderers have set the Premiership as their strong priority as they sought to establish themselves in the top flight.

The cups were seen as a distraction which could have a negative effect on their Premiership campaign.

Allardyce has been careful in recent seasons not to allow his players to get tired or injured in cup games.

But times have changed and the Bolton boss is now happy to expose his men to the rigours of three competitions.

The shift in emphasis has been enabled by Wanderers' ability over the last couple of seasons to establish themselves as a top half Premiership side.

They came close to getting a taste of success two years ago when they lost in the final of the Carling Cup to Middlesbrough.

Wanderers followed that up by finishing in a UEFA Cup qualifying position last season.

Allardyce take the success story up to another level by winning something for the club.

And he is prepared to make his players work for it in an all out bid for glory between now and the end of the season.

Much will depend on how they perform at Arsenal away and Fulham at home in the Premiership, Marseille over two legs in the UEFA Cup and West Ham at home in the FA Cup.

The latter competition is Allardyce's priority this season, as he sees it as Wanderers best chance of winning a trophy.

But the boss wants the club to go as far as it can in the UEFA Cup and finish as high as possible in the Premiership.

"At the end of this next two weeks, I don't want to be just competing in the Premiership," Allardyce said.

"We are in three competitions and we must try and stay in all three.

"The fact we are in three competitions might make us falter and if we peter out, we peter out.

"But I want to end the next two weeks still competing in all three.

"That would be an unbelievable effort and, if we can't manage that, then I certainly want us to still be competing in two competitions.

"The FA Cup Final is a bigger priority to us than finishing fourth in the Premiership. Thats the case for me and, I believe, for the players.

"It would mean we would have made a little bit more history.

"Modern day success would mean we would begin to equal the success of the club in the 1950s.

"We're edging our way towards that and, hopefully, in the coming years, we can better that.

"Getting to a cup final and winning it would be a part of that.

"I'm not so sure getting to the Champions League would have any great historic value from now on because we broke that last year by qualifying for Europe for the first time ever."