BOLTON boss Sam Allardyce today snapped back at critics of his team's style by saying: 'I only play one kind of football - winning football!'

Newcastle manager Graeme Souness, speaking after his side's 2-1 defeat at the Reebok on Sunday, joined pundits who say Bolton play a long ball game and he also accused them of an 'in your face' attitude.

But Allardyce was having none of it today as he prepared his fourth place side for Sunday's trip to Middlesbrough after watching their home UEFA Cup match with Lazio last night.

He said: 'We've got our ProZone statistics on every match and we average out at 350 passes a game and you don't do that if you are a long ball team.

'Our percentage rate of successful passes is in the high seventies and mid eighties. I could produce the figures for the Newcastle game, which would show that they were no better than we were.

'The huge bonus of the game was that a team of the stature of Newcastle United came with a game plan to stop us playing and I think Graeme's frustrations came out because his plan didn't work.

'Our game plan was suited to beat Newcastle and it worked perfectly. Whether you see that plan as short passing, long passing, medium passing or no passing it doesn't matter.

'The game plan is set out to win a match and my philosophy is that I play a certain kind of football. There's only name for Sam Allardyce's football and that's winning football.'

He added: 'People can label me with what they like but I label myself as a winning football manager.

'The only way to play it is to be adaptable to situations unless you are fortunate enough to be able to pay '15m for Alan Shearer or '25m for Wayne Rooney. Then you don't have to worry about the opposition too much.

'My way of football is about research, focussing on any weaknesses in the opposition and nullifying their strengths.

'Alan Shearer and Patrick Kluivert didn't get a shot on goal or a shot on target and that proves that my huge amount stats have got us where we are.

'We play the football we need to play to win. We all know that Manchester United play ugly, Arsenal play ugly and we play ugly when we need to. If you put us in that category, then that's great.

'You won't see United playing 20 passes at 0-0. You'll see them doing 20 or 30 when they are 3-0 up. Our stats show that, with Peter Schmeichel in goal, United were the longest long ball team in the division.'

Bolton will review the position of Senegalese midfielder Khalilou Fadiga next week following his fainting episode before the Carling Cup tie with Spurs.

He has been having tests in Belgium, where he had an operation for an abnormal heart beat earlier this year.

Allardyce said: 'We'll have to make a decision. It's looking very positive but won't know the full situation until we have studied all the specialist's reports. It's a delicate situation because we have to make the right decision for all the parties concerned.'

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