MICHAEL Ricketts left Michael Jackson for dead with two explosive bursts of pace and power in a devastating debut display on Saturday then admitted: "I'm just not fit enough!"

The 21-year-old striker, a 67th minute substitute for first half goal hero Isaiah Rankin, made a sensational start to his Reebok career with a stunning match-clincher Sam Allardyce described as "awesome".

But Ricketts was not expecting instant elevation from the bench to the starting line-up as he celebrated his 82nd minute super strike.

"I wasn't fit enough to come on from the start," he admitted. "Twenty minutes was just about all I could muster. I'm fit but I'm not match fit.

"I'm looking to get a shirt and to be on there from the start but I need to get myself match fit first. I'm not a good watcher - I just want to play - and I wanted to get on and see what I could do."

The fitness confession might come as some surprise to Michael Jackson. Like Ricketts, he'd been forced to sit out the start of the season because of a suspension carried over from May but it was clear who had the edge as the former Walsall striker - 'stolen' from the Saddlers for a downpayment of just £250,000 - twice left the Preston captain trailing in his wake.

It was pace and power that certainly impressed his manager. "Michael Jackson is no slouch," Allardyce noted, "I've seen him an awful lot and he's very, very quick but Michael just out-ran him, composed himself, waited for the right opportunity and slotted the ball into the bottom corner. He'd got down the left a couple of minutes earlier and crossed a great ball which I thought Bo Hansen was going to put in.

"He's got genuine pace but he's not just quick. He's very, very strong as well but what we have noted most in pre-season is that the quality of his finishing with both feet has been outstanding.

"We really have great hopes for him, without putting too much pressure on him because he is still only 21. But he scored 11 goals from 21 starts for Walsall last season and if he could do anything like that this year, it would be great.

"We've seen the size of the boy and we've seen what he can do in terms of the frightening pace he's got. He can achieve great things at this club if he wants to. He's shown what a good player he can be and how good a player he should be.

"It's been a long wait for him and for us. We've been dying to get him in and around that first team squad and putting him on when we did makes it look like the manager has tactically made the right substitution again! But it was just a case of changing the forwards because we have that opportunity now."