A RELIEVED Sam Allardyce believes Blackburn Rovers’ intact strikeforce will prove “critical” in their fight for Premier League survival after resisting heavy external pressure to sell Roque Santa Cruz.

With the ‘dreaded’ January transfer window now closed and the Paraguayan striker still at Ewood Park, the Rovers boss is relishing the prospect of a deadly strike trio being at his disposal for the rest of the campaign.

Benni McCarthy, Jason Roberts and Santa Cruz have contributed more than half of Rovers’ Premier League goals scored between them this season – with Allardyce admitting their fire power could prove key in their bid to beat the drop.

As revealed in the Lancashire Telegraph yesterday, Manchester City dropped out of the running for Santa Cruz following their fourth bid for the striker, in the region of £18million, was rejected by Rovers on Thursday afternoon.

Tottenham Hotspur’s interest in Rovers’ prized possession never materialised into an official offer either a transfer deadline day came and went with a minimum amount of fuss at Ewood Park.

It is believed it would have taken an offer of around £30m for the club to have even considered the sale, although the lack of any adequate replacement would have made any move impossible.

A clause in Santa Cruz’s contract will mean the striker can leave Lancashire for £20million or more in the summer but, for the moment, Allardyce is just looking forward to being able to call on a wealth of top class strikers.

He said: “Selling Roque Santa Cruz was something I wanted to avoid and Roque Santa Cruz, with Jason Roberts and Benni McCarthy is a critical area for us to achieve what we want to.

“We know their goal scoring power, because it doesn’t look like we have many goals from anywhere else, their power is critical for us to get out of this position.”

While the three will normally be battling for two places up front as the scrap to avoid relegation becomes increasingly tense, Allardyce admits a three-pronged attack could be a valuable option.

The use of all three for the last half an hour in last week’s thrilling fight back at home to Bolton He said: “Certainly there is a permutation of those three being a major force, if they can perform like they did at Bolton.

"At some stage throughout the season no doubt I will use it again.

“The only thing that happens is you lose you width though.

"The reason we changed it was because of the under-performance of many players on Wednesday night.”