Alex McLeish will offer Sam Allardyce little sympathy as he aims to reactivate the miserable start to the Newcastle United manager’s reign at St James’s Park tomorrow.

While McLeish’s tenure with Birmingham City received the perfect lift-off with last Sunday’s victory away to Tottenham Hotspur, clinched by Sebastian Larsson’s goal in stoppage time, the pressure on Allardyce only 15 games into his spell at Newcastle appeared close to breaking point before Wednesday’s meritorious draw at home to Arsenal gave the team renewed heart.

But the former Rangers manager believes that Allardyce knew what he was letting himself in for when he left Bolton Wanderers to move to a bigger club and that all new managers are vulnerable to immense criticism.

“We live in a knee-jerk, blame society,” McLeish said. “I think that [media] phone-ins can create it. It’s a job where we are well paid. Yet you know what you are up against before you go into it.

“You have to retain your sense of humour and your dignity. Big Sam is handling it well, as you would expect. Everyone is in the same position. Two or three bad results and you are prone to criticism. It’s part and parcel of this game.

“No one in the world likes criticism. I’ve been through it; it didn’t kill me. It makes you stronger. You have to try and ride it. You keep your head down, working hard and keeping focus.

“I’ve seen managers over the years pre-empt criticism, protecting themselves, creating a myth for themselves by saying this and that. I tried not to make excuses at Rangers. But several factors come into play, like a lack of money. You have to do it the way you feel right.”

McLeish, who moved to St Andrew’s after his Scotland side narrowly missed out on qualifying for Euro 2008, appreciates that Newcastle have arrived at a crossroads having held the Barclays Premier League leaders to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday. “I told some friends up there that this was the time they could get the confidence back,” he said. “Keeping the opposition fans quiet is evidence we would be doing our job right. We have to play our own game and see if we can cause Newcastle some problems.”