ANTHONY Barness believes Wanderers could be on course to follow Charlton Athletic on the promotion path back to the Premiership.

The former Addicks defender, who came to the Reebok on a free transfer, struck a high note of confidence after Saturday's derby draw at Blackburn, insisting "We have nothing to fear from anyone in this league."

His old team-mates at The Valley are currently enjoying life in the top half of the Premiership but Barness has no regrets about having chosen Wanderers when he made his summer switch.

"Everything in the garden is rosey at the moment," the London-born defender said after Bo Hansen's deflected late equaliser stretched the unbeaten run to eight games and kept Wanderers in third place in the table behind Fulham and Watford.

"It's early days yet but we're quietly confident the way things have been going. It's down to ourselves. If we can maintain our commitment and not get carried away, we've got a decent chance.

"If we can go on and do what we did at Charlton last season, it would be brilliant."

With 20 points, Wanderers are actually ahead of Charlton's 1999-2000 schedule - they led the league with 19 points after eight games - but it was a record-breaking 12-match winning streak in mid season that established Alan Curbishley's promotion favourites as the runaway title winners. Barness is not alone in acknowledging that there is still a long way to go and much tougher challenges to face than they have met up to now.

Nevertheless, the unbeaten run is breeding confidence and the fighting performance at Ewood has raised morale in the Reebok camp to new heights.

"It's great that we've played one of the supposed big teams in the league and shown that we can hold our own," the full-back enthused after playing a key role in a solid defensive display that stifled Rovers after rookie striker James Thomas had stunned Wanderers with his 48-second goal.

"Most of the teams we've played up to now have been in the bottom half. This has given us a better picture of where we are as a team and, regardless of who we are playing, we are picking up points.

"I know Fulham and Watford went on and won their games on Saturday but everyone's really up, really on a high and very confident."