England Job: Steve McClaren is expected to be appointed Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor as England head coach by the end of the week after the Middlesbrough manager's candidacy was resurrected by Luiz Felipe Scolari's decision to reject the job.

That is despite Bolton Wanderers' manager Sam Allardyce saying yesterday that the Football Association faced a choice between him and McClaren.

The England assistant manager takes Boro to Manchester United this evening having emerged relatively unscathed from potential tabloid embarrassment at the weekend. The Sun newspaper on Saturday revealed the 44-year-old had had an affair with a secretary at the Riverside, but because McClaren had enlisted Max Clifford's help the story arguably ended up more slanted in his favour.

With that issue resolved and figures at the FA insisting that an appointment would be made "imminently" with their own imposed deadline of the finals in Germany less than six weeks away, the coach who has assisted Eriksson through the last two major finals will step up into the role the Swede vacates in July. Compensation will have to be settled with Boro, where he is contracted until 2010.

The FA's board will meet on Thursday with an announcement expected the next day, though the biggest challenge will undoubtedly be to convince the nation that McClaren is not merely second choice, and second best, to Scolari. The body's nominations subcommittee had proposed five candidates - Scolari, McClaren, Allardyce, Alan Curbishley and Martin O'Neill - with the remaining quartet the only names under consideration for the post.

Meanwhile Allardyce, asked yesterday if he believed his only rival to replace Eriksson was McClaren, replied: "I'm not quite sure but it appears that way.

"I have to say I've been disappointed once and thought it was all over," he said. "Then lo and behold in the space of 24 hours it turns around. I've always said right from the very start, it's my dream job and I believe I'd be very good at doing it at this stage of my life."