SAM Allardyce saluted the character and the class of his players for their amazing fightback to record their first top flight victory at Ewood Park for 42 years.

But the Reebok boss is refusing to let derby delight mask the faults that are beginning to appear in his Premiership ambitions.

He expressed deep concerns that the strain on his ever-weakening squad could soon start to tell.

"We may blow up," he warned as he counted the cost of the 4-3 victory that put Wanderers back up to 11th in the table and left beleaguered Blackburn boss Graeme Souness predicting a "long, hard grind" ahead for his reckless Rovers.

"We've got eight games in January -- nine if we beat Tranmere in the FA Cup replay tomorrow (Tuesday) night -- and by the end of that we could have played 18 games, half a season, in two months!

"I just hope we don't pay the price of that. I hope the players will be able to continue on from here, but the chance is that they will have run out of steam, run out of legs, run out of energy. When that happens to the big boys they have a 28-man squad they can rotate and keep everybody fresh; when it happens to us, life becomes very difficult."

Allardyce was already concerned that the increasing demands on his small squad could hinder his chances of avoiding another nail-biting relegation scrap and that injuries and suspensions were sure to take a toll sooner or later.

Now he finds himself desperately searching for defensive cover after losing two left-backs in the space of four days. Simon Charlton is the latest victim, limping out of the Ewood action with a hamstring injury, having just switched to the number three berth to replace Ricardo Gardner, who faces a lengthy lay-off with a knee injury.

Per Frandsen misses the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final at home to Aston Villa next Wednesday and Kevin Nolan will miss either the FA Cup fourth round tie at Luton, if Wanderers get past Tranmere at the Reebok tomorrow, or the away leg of the Villa tie after picking up his fifth booking of the season at Blackburn.

With Jay-Jay Okocha missing a possible nine games while on African Nations Cup duty with Nigeria and Florent Laville not expected to be available until late March at the earliest, Allardyce had good reason to be concerned as he looked at the bigger picture after the Blackburn game.

"Just look at Fulham last year," he pointed out. "They started the season unbelievably well, going through in Europe very nicely but they'd played 28 games by the end of December and they blew up. That's probably why Jean Tigana isn't with them any more."

The manager, who is once again having to react to a situation rather than being pro-active in the transfer market, knows he has no option in the current financial climate but to take the loan and short-term contract route as he searches for reinforcements.

But he fears he may not always be able to come up with the goods and says, sooner or later, his directors will have to start paying transfer fees.

"It's all we can do at the moment," he accepts. "If they haven't got the money, they haven't got the money. Nothing changes and you just have to live with it. You don't accept it but you live with it and you hope that one day, if you continue to have success, it will change. But there is no doubt about it, there will be some time when you can't find a player for nothing because he won't be available and when that time comes we will have to find the funds to do a bit of both.

"At the moment we're taking advantage of a skint game. Had the game not been skint, we would never have had the money, under our circumstances, to compete with anybody else.

"And that would be our downfall. At the moment we are riding on the back of a skint game. While other teams have struggled with cash flow, it's given us an opportunity to compete because we've done our business shrewdly.

"We've got ourselves in a in a position to be very good in the Premiership but the warnings are that Blackburn had five first teamers out and we've only won the game 4-3.

"Danger signs ring out when that happens."