RALPH Hasenhuttl admits he did not know too much about Sam Allardyce's career before moving to England, but praised his "amazing record" of keeping teams in the Premier League.

The managerial duo are set to go head-to-head for the first time tomorrow, when Saints face Allardyce's West Brom at the Hawthorns (6pm).

Hasenhuttl's charges were victorious in the reverse fixture earlier this season, when the Baggies were managed by Slaven Bilic.

Despite a sensational 5-2 win at Chelsea last weekend, West Brom still face a mountain to climb to avoid relegation, currently sitting 19th, eight points adrift of safety with eight games to play.

Allardyce has never been relegated as a manager, notably keeping the likes of Sunderland, Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace in the top flight across his career, which has covered more than 1,000 games across 30 years.

Asked what the perception was of Allardyce in Austria or Germany, Hasenhuttl said: "I know the name, I didn’t know so much about his way of playing football.

"I’ve heard a little bit from my assistant coaches about his history with keeping every team in the league that he took over so it’s an amazing record he has there.

"This is well known. And now for me. But I think the job he took here was definitely not the easiest one in terms of the distance to the safe spots, it was a very big one.

"But the results have shown he took a lot of points and also against the big teams, so definitely he has turned some things around in this club and still he is believing in staying in the league.

"This you could feel also in the last game against Chelsea, the players all over the pitch, even if they have been one down they never stopped believing, never stopped fighting and in the end they scored a few beautiful goals and deserved to win against a strong side.

"So you can imagine how difficult it will get for us but it’s a good challenge, definitely."