 Allardyce was hired as a player-coach by Brian Talbot at West Bromwich Albion in February 1989. He spent most of the rest of the 1988 – 89 season at The Hawthorns managing and playing for the reserve team, before being promoted to first team coach in the summer, in a move that saw former first team coach Stuart Pearson demoted to reserve team coaching. Allardyce and Talbot were sacked in January 1991 following a defeat to Isthmian League side Woking in the FA Cup. He later worked as a part-time coach at Bury, but manager Mike Walsh could not afford to keep him on the staff for the 1989 – 90 season.
