SAM Allardyce reckons Wanderers must shake off their relegation hangover quickly if they are to follow him back into the big time.

Fresh from gaining promotion with West Ham, Big Sam admits watching his former club’s demise 11 years after he led them to the Premier League has taken the edge off his celebrations.

But after conquering the play-offs with the Hammers at Wembley, Allardyce sees no reason why Wanderers could not do the same in 12 months time, provided they shrug off the setback of losing their top-flight status and keep the squad together.

“I was here 10 years as a player, and eight years on the greatest journey I’ve had as a manager,” said the former Reebok boss, who was back in town to receive a cheque on behalf of the One Step cancer charity at Bolton School. “To see Bolton lose its Premier League status after 11 years is very sad.

“If I could offer any advice it would be to get rid of the negativity that relegation brings as quickly as you possibly can, and keep the squad together.

“Owen has experience of getting a club promoted at Burnley, so he knows the score.

“But first he’ll have to remove the huge disappointment in the whole of the club – not just the players and his staff.

“After that, he can try and regenerate that positive mental attitude.”

Allardyce has warned Wanderers that adapting to the second tier is not an easy task, as he found at Upton Park.

With plenty of former Premier League clubs for company, nothing should be taken for granted.

“The Championship is a quality division, it’s a slog over 46 games against some high class opposition who are still getting parachute payments,” he said.

“That gives you a financial base to go back up, but there are an awful lot of clubs like that now, none more so than Wolves and Blackburn who have also gone down.

“Others teams are aspiring to get up there - Cardiff, Middlesbrough, Leicester - and then the teams that have been promoted like Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday. You’ve seen recently how Southampton, Norwich and Swansea have maintained momentum after promotion.”

But Allardyce does not subscribe to the same theory as his former charge Jay Jay Okocha that a lack of investment was to blame for Wanderers dropping through the trap door.

“You can only invest what you can afford,” he said. “It’s a difficult market and there is little margin for error when you are a manager working on limited finances.

“It can’t deliver the sort of expectation levels that people start to demand.

“More often, you don’t get the players who are first on your list, you only get the ones you can afford. That’s the sad thing about football and finance today.”

West Ham were heavily tipped for promotion when Allardyce took the reins, soon after the East Londoners had dropped into the Championship. And with Wanderers currently third favourites behind Leicester and Wolves with most bookmakers, the 57-year-old has warned that expectation can be a heavy cross to bear.

“Right from the start we had to be the team that got promoted,” he said. “People were saying ‘we should be this, we should be that’. But in transition, it’s never an easy task.

“Historically over the last 10 years, only eight had achieved automatic promotion at the first time of asking.

“It was disappointing when we just slipped up but when you go up via the play-offs it gives you memories for the rest of your life. In the end, we delivered what we’d said at the start of the season.

“The criticism surprised me at one stage because it came after breaking a club record for away wins. But you have to live with that demand.”

Allardyce was speaking less than 24 hours after managing the England team at Soccer Aid, an event organised by Robbie Williams and Jonathan Wilkes that raised more than £10million for charitable causes.

Teaming former pros with celebrities, England ran out 3-1 winners over a Rest of the World XI.

“It was a huge amount of fun,” Allardyce said. “Watching the celebs, they were delighted to be there but also scared stiff of playing in front of 72,000 people. What they do normally is well-rehearsed but this time they were going out and fulfilling their dream by playing at Old Trafford but knowing they weren’t quite as good as the legends, but enjoying the occasion for a fantastic cause. The money they raised can do a staggering good.”