Allardyce hails front two

Allardyce: Happy with strikers

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Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce is delighted to sing the praises of his current strike force Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts.

While speculation continues over the future of injured striker Roque Santa Cruz, McCarthy and Roberts have scored five goals between them in the three matches.

Although the goals were not enough to pull Rovers out of the Premier League relegation zone, Allardyce is confident that, with or without Santa Cruz, they can become the club's saviours.

"It's brilliant," Allardyce said.

"Five goals in three matches from your two strikers - with supposedly your best striker out injured - is wonderful.

Delighted

"I'm absolutely delighted about that and it could have been a lot more if they had a bit more luck.

"It gives us great encouragement to know that, given the right service in to those two, they will score.

"The players should register very quickly that, the more we play off those two, the more chances we've got of scoring goals and the more we can enjoy ourselves by getting more and more victories."

Rovers take a breather from Premier League action when they travel to play Blyth Spartans in the third round of the FA Cup on Monday night.

Although Allardyce is expected to take the opportunity to rest several of his senior players, the Rovers boss knows even those who back up will get a full week's rest between matches.

And the former Bolton and Newcastle manager is grateful for the kinder fixture list.

Bonus

"The best thing that's happened this season is that we haven't been forced to play on New Year's Day," he said.

"It's a massive, massive bonus. When everyone else in Europe is having a break, we're still full-on.

"We're normally head-on with a game on New Year's Day with the FA Cup immediately after that but at least they have been sensible and given us a day's break at long, long last."