Allardyce 'I Came To Newcastle To Buy Quality I Couldn't Buy At Bolton'

"When you've hit the sort of levels and attempts on goal we've had, particularly in the first half, you have to point out to the lads where the ruthless end of it lies.

"Then of course not giving away silly goals makes a big difference in turning draws into wins.

"It was a worry that we had to rely on a penalty to get back in it. It's great creating the amount of opportunities we do, but at the moment we're not converting a lot of them.

"Six months down the line, hopefully people will look back and say this was a big week.

"Everyone keeps going on about this Bolton style, but we've never played it since I've been here. We haven't got that sort of player.

"I've never been able to buy players to play a certain system, I've always had to go to a football club and pick a system to suit the players.

"If I wasn't flexible, I wouldn't have got where I am today with less money (to spend) than everyone else for most of my career.

"I came here to get more money to buy more quality players, make a better team and play a better way if that's at all possible. But there's only one way to play and that's to win.

"It does rankle that I'm labelled the way I am and people continually go on about it.

"It comes from other managers because we beat them at Bolton on a regular basis.

"Chelsea played exactly the same way we did to win games when they needed to. That wasn't deemed long-ball, it was deemed long passing.

"If you look at Arsenal on Wednesday, how many long balls did they play off (Emmanuel) Adebayor? Lots is the answer, because I've got the ProZone stats.

"When (Peter) Crouch plays (for Liverpool) don't tell me (Rafael) Benitez doesn't play off him? Or (Fernando) Torres? You watch Liverpool in the first five minutes (of the recent game at St James's Park) and 60 or 70% of the balls were sent over the top of our defence. But people aren't clever enough to see that. People listen too much to the managers.

"Everyone has to play long passes behind a defence to get the opportunities to score.

"Arsenal are two-dimensional now. Before they used to roll it out at the back, play through midfield and try to score from there. Now, every now and again, the back four go bang. And it makes them a better team.

"We couldn't play like that in the first half, because Birmingham sat back, so we had to play through midfield, get it out wide and get crosses in the box, which is exactly what we did."