SAM Allardyce is "hopeful" (at this stage he puts it no stronger than that) of signing the two players he believes will put Wanderers in with a good promotion shout.

With the Colin Hendry deal virtually tied up, the Reebok boss believes he has gone a long way to reinforcing his squad for the big push.

But he won't be completely satisfied until he has secured at least one, preferably two, more deals.

Allardyce is confident Wanderers can force their way into the top three and, ultimately, press strongly for one of the two automatic places.

He's had nothing but praise for the way his injury-hit squad has defied the odds and established themselves as one of the most feared and respected teams in the division. But he is honest enough to accept that they'll struggle to stay the pace if he isn't able to strengthen his hand.

"If we can stay in the top three or four," he says, "we can push on from there with the squad we've got and with one or two quality additions.

"That's why the search goes on."

Having needed a substantial contribution from the player himself to finally clinch the Hendry deal, Allardyce has made it abundantly clear - if he hadn't before - that Wanderers are strapped for cash. They don't have to sell, having already traded Eidur Gudjohnsen, Claus Jensen and Mark Fish, but the manager has little or no scope to make any significant moves into the transfer market.

He hates the idea of having to look short rather than long-term but accepts the situation for what it is - temporarily at least - while living in hope that he can keep his team in the promotion frame long enough to generate more cash through the turnstiles and coinvince his directors to loosen the purse strings.

"If we can stay in touch with the leaders, then money will possibly become available to help us push on," he explains.

"At the moment it's very tight. There's no money available in that sense - sometimes I don't think our fans see that - but short term deals might be possible.

"As a manager, you'd prefer long term solutions, if you can do them and we'll keep looking but we might have to go down that short-term road again.

"Quality is the key but quality is the hardest thing to find."