We will go there and give a good account of ourselves

Last updated : 02 December 2011 By Tony Scholes

Allardyce took over at the Boleyn Ground in the summer from Avram Grant, football's equivalent of Dr Death, and currently has the team in second place in the Championship.

They have the best away record in the league, by some distance, but Allardyce believes that is giving the impression that the home record, which is the sixth best in the league, is not that good.

"People are making conclusions that our home form is not too good because they look at our away record and it is the best in the league," he said. "They revert back and say we can't be as good at home. No, we are just as good at home now. The unfortunate thing was the couple of shock results in the last minute against Cardiff and Ipswich.

"Then of course still my best performance of the season was Bristol City but because we didn't win people went home with the illusion we were poor. That wasn't the case. We just didn't finish the opposition off because we missed our changes.

"That is the problem, you can be as creative as you want but if you don't put the ball in the net the game is unforgiving. Since then and before even, we have managed to make sure when chances have been created we had the quality to finish them off.

"We are making a bigger statement every time we win a match. That is good for the confidence of the team and makes the opposition wary. That is important psychologically."

He's also hoping Burnley will go and attack his team, in the way that Blackpool did earlier in the season. He added: "If you give us the space and time we will play better than anyone else in this division, but teams are not daft enough to do that.

"Blackpool thought they could attack us and we went and scored four and it could have been five or six. If we get the space, we exploit it.

"Most come here and tighten it up and make life difficult. At the end of the day we have to make sure that when teams defend well, that we are capable of breaking them down. If they do attack, particularly here, generally we will be much better than them in terms of creativity.

"It still doesn't mean you are going to win the game because you have to have the quality to finish it off but we look forward to anyone that wants to come here and attack us."

Eddie Howe, meanwhile, takes his team to West Ham, where he suffered his second defeat as a Burnley manager in last season's FA Cup tie there, full of confidence after the comeback at Hull followed by the hammering of Ipswich, and he knows it is going to be a difficult game for the Clarets.

"It's probably one of the toughest assignments we will have this season, but on the back of two good wins the lads are in good spirits," Howe admitted.

"We didn't enjoy the losing run we had, but the team spirit and the togetherness has always been there. That's never been a problem, but the confidence we have gained from the two wins is priceless to us and hopefully the lads will believe how good they can be.

"West Ham are very well organised, as Sam Allardyce's teams are. They are a huge threat from set-plays and they are very experienced. He's built a squad that's been there and done it and he's banking on them getting promotion this year. I wouldn't bet against them. They are a strong outfit and it will be a difficult game for us.

"But we are on the back of two wins. We are confident, our away form has been good and when we perform like we can do we are a match for anybody, and that includes West Ham, so we have no need to fear West Ham at all."

Recalling that FA Cup defeat, he continued: "I know last year was a difficult game but we were well in it until we conceded some poor goals. We were an experienced side that day but looking back at the personnel, a lot of those players have now gone.

"We are now slightly more the other way. We are inexperienced but in some senses there is no fear with the younger players and we will go there and give a good account of ourselves and hopefully we can pick up another result."