BIG SAM OPEN TO DUGOUT RETURN

BIG SAM is back on the march at 70and don't rule him out of an encore in the dugout.

- MIKE WALTERS

Sam Allardyce admitted he had never walked eight miles before setting off on the trek from Bolton Wanderers to Wigan Athletic, and the old sultan of bluster sounded genuinely daunted by the prospect.

Eight miles?

That's the equivalent of walking two rounds of golf.

“Ah, that sounds more like it,” he boomed, and immediately you fancied Allardyce's chances of staying the course.

Say what you like about Big Sam - and too many people who have never met him do - but he has never ducked a challenge and he completed the course like a frisky pup.

As a three-time cardiac patient himself, Allardyce happily signed up to join Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation’s 2,500-mile *Every Minute Matters Relay around all 72 Football League clubs to raise awareness of life-saving CPR for fans.