Pressure, what pressure?

Successive defeats at Spurs and Derby have been grist to the mill for the critics who have doubted all along that they could not sustain the momentum of their flying start.

Now, having slipped from top to 12th in a matter of weeks, the chips are down ... or are they?

Not according to the young guns who have taken to the Premiership like ducklings to water.

Pressure! What pressure? Bosom buddies Michael Ricketts and Kevin Nolan laugh off the suggestion that Wanderers are feeling the strain.

"When you've been at the bottom of Division two there's no pressure here," says Ricketts, who cut his teeth at Walsall before becoming the Reebok goal star.

"I've played in the lower leagues, I've seen the other end of the scale ... relegation battles and the lot. And I know just where I'd rather be."

Sam Allardyce is urging his players to ignore all outside influences that might add to the pressure of having failed to record a Premiership win at the Reebok since Dean Holdsworth fluked that memorable winner against Liverpool on August 27.

But the ultra confident Ricketts and his equally optimistic sidekick don't need any tutoring in the art of positive thinking. Nolan, still only 19 but with a string of mature midfield performances to his name, certainly sees no cause for concern.

"People are thinking we are worrying about what's been going on over the last couple of weeks but we're not," he says calmly.

"We'll get it right in the end.

"We're not too bothered about what's going on in the table because we know that at the end of of the season we're going to be in the Premier League.

"We could be doing better and we're upset with ourselves when we consider some of the points we've lost but it's going to happen like that ... we'll lose points we don't expect to lose and get them where we don't expect to get them."

Neither Ricketts, who watched from the subs' bench, nor Nolan, who was rested from the squad, were directly involved in the Worthington Cup debacle at Spurs but they shared the embarrassment of the 6-0 defeat.

"We're all in this together," 12-goal Ricketts says. "We take each defeat and each win as a team. That's important.

"So we all think we have something to bounce back from. But there's no added pressure. We've gone a number of games when we haven't won in the Premiership already this season and come back strong. Now we know we need to address this situation tomorrow."

"We know Charlton are going to make it hard for us because they are a good side and have picked up recently with wins over Arsenal and Chelsea.

"But we know we must bounce back from some heavy blows we've suffered and try and get the three points."