Source: SKY_Sports
Allardyce eyes Wolves scalp
Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce feels a weekend meeting with Wolves has become a must-win contest for his side.
The Ewood Park outfit have made a slow start to the 2009/10 campaign, taking just one point from their opening three fixtures.
They have also struggled in front of goal, with only a Gael Givet effort in a 2-1 defeat at Sunderland to show for their efforts so far.
While results have been poor, Allardyce still feels that his side have displayed enough potential to suggest they can pull clear of
a relegation scrap this term.
The experienced coach does, however, accept that points on the board are vital at this stage of the season and has called on his players to grind out a result against Wolves on Saturday.
"It's more important than anything else now," Allardyce said.
"We've had performances with no results, apart from the draw against West Ham.
"What we must do is get the performance with the result, and that needs to be the win - and if we can't get the performance, just win, get three points on the board, which will settle us all down.
"It's going into game four for us and we've been excited about what we've done and how much we have created in those games.
"But at the end of the day, the bottom line is that out of all the chances we have created, out of all opportunities to score goals, we've only scored one.
"There have been one or two cruel blows in terms of wrong refereeing decisions at certain times during the games and that has played its part as well, but the big part is about us needing to improve on our finishing for Saturday."
Certain sections of the Blackburn support vented their anger during an insipid goalless draw with the Hammers, but Allardyce feels his approach to that game was spot on.
"They pay their money, they can express whatever opinion they feel they need to based on what has turned up," he said.
"But you have to bear in mind that it was a very hot day, and both teams had played in very competitive Carling Cup ties during the week.
"It wasn't the pace or the level they are used to watching, and we took a different approach based on what was available to us.
"Franco (Di Santo) and Benni (McCarthy) were injured and we had to play Dunny (David Dunn) just off Jason (Roberts), so there was no point in us playing up there as quickly as we normally do because we didn't have the team to do that.
"We played a more patient and cautious game in terms of keeping possession and moving up the pitch a bit slower, so there is some frustration which has come out of that.
"But if you look at the stats, it was a complete dominance of a West Ham side that we should have beaten.
"The frustration is that we are all waiting for the first win - we thought that might be the day, and we didn't get it."
