SAM Allardyce has warned his international brigade to watch their backs.

The Reebok boss believes he now has enough competition for places to keep even his World Cup players on their toes.

Wanderers were within seconds of beating Manchester United on Saturday without Stelios and Ricardo Gardner, who were rested after playing two qualifiers in five days for their respective countries, and joint top scorer Henrik Pedersen was withdrawn at half-time.

The men who stepped in -- Kevin Nolan, Anthony Barness and El-Hadji Diouf -- all made significant contributions in the 2-2 draw and, although bitterly disappointed not to bank all three points after coming from behind to lead 2-1 in overtime, Allardyce felt the performance fully justified his team selection.

"If players have travelled the world and played two games in a short space of time, they simply aren't fuelled up to compete at this level," he said.

"You have to use other players and when you get a performance like we did from them, the players who have missed out suddenly find their places under threat.

" I think it's a good thing that I can now turn round to the players who go off on international duty and tell them they must be careful and look over their shoulders because I've got players bursting to get in and, if the lad who takes their spot does the business, they ain't going to get back in."

Diouf's impact, in particular, suggests Pedersen might struggle to get back in the first 11, despite his impressive early-season form.

Allardyce had hoped his strong-running forward would still be fresh, having played only 11 minutes of Denmark's qualifier against Ukraine the previous weekend. But he added: "I thought he didn't look right having been away with Denmark.

"It looks like it's put him off his game rather than on it. He didn't come back fresh and he didn't look up for it. He should probably be careful about going away again if he comes back like that. That's why I made the change.

"Gary Speed was the only one of the internationals who played two games last week who I felt could cope because he's done it for many years -- and he came through the game very well. But I've got a squad that's bursting to play and the ones who came in on Saturday did a magnificent job -- Kevin Nolan, Anthony Barness and El-Hadji Diouf.

"In fact it was an unbelievable performance by the players, including the substitutes. The disappointment was that, for two split seconds, they didn't do their jobs and conceded two goals from corners -- set plays which we practise week in, week out."