SAM Allardyce will revert to to his tried and trusted Premiership formula in the hope of producing a repeat performance against Manchester City tomorrow.

The Wanderers boss was delighted to see his fringe players stake a claim with their demolition of Doncaster in the FA Cup, but all the big guns will be back as Wanderers bid to cement their place in the top six by completing a double over Stuart Pearce's Blues.

That means Andranik and Idan Tal - two of the stars of the 4-0 win at the Keepmoat Stadium - are likely to have to settle for a place on the subs' bench.

"A number of the fringe players impressed against Doncaster and that has given me an indication that these players are ready to make the step up into the Premiership," Allardyce said. "I don't think I will make wholesale changes, but it has given me more options if I need to change things around in the future."

Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicolas Anelka, Gary Speed, El-Hadji Diouf, Kevin Nolan, Tal Ben Haim and Ivan Campo are all expected to return to the starting 11, although Abdoulaye Faye will be unavailable because of suspension.

Wanderers are determined to claim a three-point haul after suffering their first Premiership defeat in six at Liverpool on New Year's Day. But Allardyce has warned his players to expect a tougher test than they got at Eastlands on December 23, when they enjoyed a relatively comfortable 2-0 win.

"City were on a bad run, when we won there," he said. "They have turned things around with three successive victories and they are looking a strong outfit. They also had a few players missing through injury and it seems that some of their key players will be back.

"They are playing with a lot more confidence and it is a massive boost when your key players are fighting fit. It just goes to show how quickly football can turn around. We played them three weeks ago and we will face a totally different Manchester City this time around."

Allardyce is confident, however, that his players have the ability and the intelligence to adapt to any situation they are presented with and, encouraged by the Eastlands win, hasn't ruled out a switch of emphasis.

"We took the game to City in the first 20 minutes and managed to get the two goals, which sealed the win," he added.

"It was also pleasing to see Nicolas Anelka score both goals against his former club and I hope he can do something similar at the Reebok.

"I took the risk of changing the system against City into a 4-4-2, which richly paid off for us. I might consider doing something similar again, but what impresses me about my players is the way they can adapt to any situation.

"Our success is down to the fact that we are adaptable. We assess every game on its merits and change things accordingly to suit that particular game."