SAM Allardyce was facing up today to a searching test of his management and motivational skills.

The Wanderers boss saw his players turn in such a woeful performance at Birmingham on Saturday that it could only be down to a king-sized hangover from their Carling Cup final defeat.

So poor, in fact, that he conceded that the task of getting them back in their Premiership stride could be tougher than he ever expected.

"This tells me it's going to be more difficult than I thought," he said after goals in each half from Mikael Forssell and Bryan Hughes gave his pal Steve Bruce a comfortable 2-0 victory.

Allardyce had warned his players what to expect at St Andrew's - a high-tempo, in-your-face encounter with one of the Premiership's hardest working teams - and had picked out the key men who required special attention.

Yet two minutes into the game he was racing down from his seat in the directors' box to the touchline where, in typical vein-bulging fashion, he frantically tried to shake his players out of their slumbers.

And he was at it again at half-time, fearing that if he didn't provoke some kind of reaction, Birmingham would run riot.

The second half was marginally better than the first - Blues keeper Maik Taylor actually had a shot to save - but that was scant consolation.

"I just told them how to play the game," Allardyce said, giving a simple summary of his interval "pep-talk. I'd told them before but they obviously didn't listen. This Birmingham team will just not let you settle on the ball. They'll not let Jay-Jay Okocha, nor Ivan Campo produce his best.

"I probably should have had four interpreters in before the game because I knew exactly what was going to happen and I tried to tell them but, for some unknown reason, they didn't take it on board in the first half.

"They got caught in possession, they allowed Birmingham to get on top of them, purely and simply because of good, high-tempo football.

"That was what I had to re-state at half time. Then we made it into a scrap - a 'we'll scrap you, you scrap us' game - and we got back into it. We got opportunities to create one or two things in the last third which we should have done from the start.

"But it was very disappointing."

Allardyce had hoped a positive result at St Andrew's might be a launchpad for a shot at European qualification via the Premiership route but, with games coming up against three of the top four - Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle - he desperately wants a back-to-basics approach based on a solid

defensive philosophy, just to stop the slide into the lower reaches of the table.

Wanderers have managed just two shut-outs in their last 20 league and cup games. "At the moment our biggest problem is with the clean sheets," the manager said. "It doesn't look like, under any circumstances now - whether we play average or play well - we can keep a clean sheet.

"That's what we've got to get back to, and make sure one goal is going to make us that precious three points and kick us on from now until the end of the season."

Allardyce, who has been criticised in the past for staffing-up with loan players, sported a wry smile as he considered the way Forssell and Taylor - on loan from Chelsea and Fulham respectively - played such vital roles in the game. The Finland striker striker beat his international team-mate,

Jussi Jaaskelainen, for the third time in successive head-to-heads to put Birmingham in front then, after Hughes had doubled the lead in 69th, Taylor pulled off an excellent save to keep out a Simon Charlton shot, Wanderers' only worthwhile effort of the game.

"They're top drawer, the pair of them," he said admiringly. "The two loan players have performed miracles this year for Birmingham. Not taking anything away from the rest, who do work extremely hard, they are why Birmingham are fifth in the division and deserve to be."