SAM Allardyce has warned Blackburn Rovers fans ‘don’t expect an instant goal scoring cure’ after watching his side gift Birmingham City victory on Saturday.

A host of missed chances, including a saved Morten Gamst Pedersen penalty, saw Rovers throw away a lead to lose 2-1 at St Andrews after dominating for the majority.

Steven Nzonzi deservedly headed Rovers ahead on 53 minutes but a combination of missed chances and a string of Ben Foster saves allowed Craig Gardner’s second-half double to secure an unlikely home victory.

A frustrated Allardyce is desperate to add to his striking ranks before the close of the transfer window at the end of this month, but he admits he doesn’t expect to find a magic solution.

Rovers’ profligacy in front of goal has been their major weakness during Allardyce’s one-and-a-half season reign and the opening two games this season have been no different.

Rovers are understood to have already had a couple of bids for strikers turned down this summer, with another offer believed to have been made, but Allardyce admits he doesn’t expect to reap immediate rewards from any potential new signing.

The Rovers boss said: “We are trying but I wouldn’t say we are close to anything at the moment.

"There is a limited number of front men who are available and we have to find out whether we consider them good enough to come into this league and produce the goals we need.

“Anybody we get now is going to take a considerable amount of time to adjust to the Premier League anyway because it is going to be from abroad no doubt.

“I don’t think we are going to find anyone from this country so it will take us until the best part of Christmas to get them up to being able to play in the Premier League, so we have to go with the lads we have got.”

Nikola Kalinic, Martin Olsson and El-Hadji Diouf all squandered opportunities in front of goal for Rovers as their away-day woes returned to haunt them.

Ben Foster was in top form in between the posts for the hosts but Allardyce knows there are no excuses for ending an impressive display at St Andrews with no reward.

“Our inability to convert chances into goals was the main reason for us losing,” said Allardyce.

“Before we look at the defensive side, we have completely dominated the game, created far more chances, failed to take them, missed a penalty, hit the post when you shouldn’t be hitting the post from six yards out and then Foster comes up with three or four top class saves.

“To boot we go and throw it all away by not converting those chances and putting Birmingham out of the picture.

“I think they had one header in the first half, which Paul Robinson saved, and then we have fallen asleep after we scored and give them a simple goal.

“Then the second goal is a speculative shot at best and it has gone in.

"That is the sum total of their real efforts on goal and they have scored two and won the game.”