It ended in acrimony and the bitterness remains – but don’t try telling Gary Megson the rows at Albion overshadowed the good times.

The former Baggies manager is back on familiar turf, more than four years after his sacking ended one of the most eventful spells in recent Hawthorns history.

It took him a moment to lower his guard as he looked ahead to his Baggies return, but a little gentle prompting was all it took to get the often stern Bolton boss nostalgic.

He insists that even his bitter fall-out with chairman Jeremy Peace and the anger he felt over his 2004 dismissal have not soured his memories of his time in charge in the West Midlands.

He said: “People say there was good and bad but I reckon it was 98 per cent good. I love the place and it’s a great football club. Football-wise the memories were good.

“When we went down there they were second from bottom of the Championship and had been out of the Premier League for about 19 years, and we got promoted and took them into the Premier League.

“The support is my biggest memory of West Brom. The way they follow their team is absolutely incredible. It’s a huge, huge football club and a fantastic football club and there are some great people who work there

“They deserve success for the efforts they put in.”

Having re-opened the sores of his fraught relationship with Peace ahead of Albion’s August trip to the Reebok Stadium, Megson has opted to let sleeping dogs lie this time around.

Yet the frustrations at what he still regards as a missed opportunity at the Hawthorns clearly remain.

Having led the Baggies to the top flight in 2002,overhauling a massive Wolves lead along the way, Megson still believes the club “missed the boat” through “under-investing” in the team.

It is a view he believes is supported by the success of his current club, who climbed out of the Championship to become established as a Premier League club.

He said: “The first season we went up at West Brom we did it with a maximum wage of £6,000. That won’t be the case now.

“We had all sorts of problems, with players going on strike in the first instance over finance.

“It was difficult and the club missed the boat in that first year. This club [Bolton] did everything in an opposite way and managed to stay up. If you can do that once, then you can kick on a little bit.”

While the wounds from his time at Albion may never heal completely, Megson insists the treasured memories from his time in the West Midlands more than sooth any pain.

He said: “It’s a great club. I was there for four and a half years and I think it was a successful period, considering where they were and where I left them.

It is that first promotion, which ended a 16-year wait for top-flight football for the Baggies, that lives largest in the memory.

Megson said: “I’m not really a nostalgic person but people can’t take those kind of memories away from you.

“It was incredible to be able to get the whole Brummy Road End to do the ‘Boing Boing’ with just my wife and son there on the pitch. It was fantastic.

“The amount of people celebrating that day was great and there was a release at having not been in the top flight for 16 years.

“We did that with a wage bill that was 17th highest in the league.

“You look back and they were great times but you also look at the efforts of the players, because there were no particularly big names in there.

“In terms of honesty, desire and a huge will to win, it didn’t get any better.”

But Megson insists there will be no room for nostalgia once the action begins tomorrow and claims the reaction from Albion fans to his return is of little concern to him.

He said: “I really enjoyed it but time moves on. We’re not looking at it as a result that could put Albion in serious trouble. Three points are at stake that could put us a bit closer to safety.

“I enjoyed my time down there, got sacked, and moved on. I don’t know what reception I’m expecting and it doesn’t matter, to be perfectly frank.

“They are unbelievable supporters down there and I’d expect them to back the club like they always have done.

“They’ll want their team to get every decision, every bounce of the ball and to try to turn us over.

“My job is to make sure my side gets a result. Whatever goes on at any other football club, Albion included, is not my business.”