Toon manager Allardyce could get a taste of his own medicine

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The biter bit? The irony will not be lost on Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez if Allardyce gets a taste of his own medicine in the Potteries on Sunday.

The managers of Arsenal and Liverpool were more upset than most by Bolton's physical approach and reliance on set-pieces to unsettle more graceful opponents.

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Allardyce took the criticism as a backhanded compliment from rivals with more money and better players who were unable to counter his route one tactics.

How ironic it would be for Big Sam to fall to a side playing to the Bolton blueprint.

But there was more to Bolton than humping the ball up to the big man — and the same can be said of Stoke.

Just like Allardyce's Bolton, Tony Pulis' side are splitting opinion.

Pundit Jimmy Armfield described them as the best team he has seen in the Championship this season.

Sheffield United manager Bryan Robson branded them "the Wimbledon of old".

"That really upset us," said a Stoke insider. "It was mentioned in the buildup to the game when we played them at Bramall Lane a month later and we went 3-0 up inside 20 minutes."

It would be harsh to saddle any team with a long-ball tag when the explosive Ricardo Fuller is leading an attack supported by Liam Lawrence, Richard Cresswell and Rory Delap.

But there is no doubt that Pulis likes to build his teams on pace and power — particularly in attack — and for that he makes no excuses.

It is how the 49-year-old Welshman has done it throughout a managerial career that began at Bournemouth, where he served as assistant to Harry Redknapp before heading to Gillingham, Bristol City, Portsmouth, Plymouth and two spells at Stoke.

The first saw Ade Akinbiyi and Gifton Noel-Williams leading the line. These days it is the 6ft 3in Fuller, Vincent Pericard (6ft 1in), Jon 'The Beast' Parkin (6ft 4in) and Mamady Sidibe (6ft 4in) who is reluctantly joining up with Mali for the African Nations Cup after this match.

Promising Stoke youngster Martin Paterson left for Scunthorpe in the summer.

At 5ft 9in, he had little chance of playing up front for Pulis without the use of a rack — or stilts.

Hardly surprising, then, that Stoke take advantage of their set-pieces.

Delap can launch the ball from a throwin further than almost any other player in the Football League while defender Ryan Shawcross — on loan from Manchester United — has benefited from set-pieces to score seven goals this season.

Worryingly for Allardyce, his centreback partner Leon Cort has weighed in with another four, even though he only joined the club in November.

It all points to the strong possibility of a cup upset at the expense of Allardyce and his beleaguered side at Stoke, for whom the game is the biggest since Everton and Paul Gascoigne visited the Britannia Stadium at the same stage of the competition six years ago.

But Newcastle would be mistaken if they thought Stoke are whipping themselves up into a frenzy over this one.

Following the draw with Hull on New Year's Day, Pulis gave his players two days off and went to see Manchester City pile yet more pressure on Allardyce with a 2-0 win at St James' Park before retiring to his home in Bournemouth, not far from his old pal Redknapp.

Keeping his family and a house on the south coast might seem odd for the manager of Stoke, but his longdistance lifestyle is nothing compared to that of Dave Kemp.

Stoke's 54-year-old assistant manager shares a house with coach Mark O'Connor during the season and spends his summers at home in California, where he settled after finishing his playing career in the States.

It won't surprise Robson to know that Kemp's CV includes a stint on Wimbledon's coaching staff when they beat Liverpool in the 1988 Cup Final and he still keeps in touch with Dons' old warhorse Vinnie Jones When Kemp missed the start of pre-season training last summer, Pulis was happy to call on an old acquaintance who was in between jobs.

That man? Gary Megson, now striving to build on Allardyce's legacy at Bolton.

Sam could be forgiven for fearing his past is about to catch up with him.