SAM Allardyce fears failure to solve Blackburn Rovers’ firepower shortage this summer could result in more of a Premier League struggle next campaign.

Having secured a top 10 finish, boss Allardyce has warned this season’s progress could easily be stopped in its tracks if they fail to find the goals.

David Dunn is the club’s top scorer this season with 10 goals, and Allardyce is desperate to add to his striker ranks over the next couple of months - if finance allows.

After the victory at Aston Villa, the Rovers boss said: “We will have to try and find a front man.

“Jason Roberts did well today and Nikola Kalinic has emerged but we do need more than that and it is our main area.

He added: “If we are good enough to finish 10th now we should be good enough to get in and around there again.

“If we find more goals we can kick on next season, but that is a key element of the progression of our team.

"If we can’t find more goals we could struggle more than this year.

“It is a massive element that is missing in our make-up.

"I think you have to bear in mind our spending power is going to be very, very limited indeed and most teams are going to be spending more than we are.

“So that is the problem we have got. The league could be tougher as well.

"You have got your traditional top four and then Spurs and Manchester City straightaway.

“Then you have Aston Villa, Everton and that makes eight teams who will be very difficult to keep up with.

"Sunderland will spend again, West Ham probably, Stoke definitely.

"You are talking about spending power wise all those clubs being way above us.

“Without trying to sound too gloomy and doomy, but our life is getting increasingly more difficult because we are spending less than everyone else.

“While our wage bill is considerable and probably mid range in the league our spending power is at the bottom. That will make life difficult and means all the players who have done well this year have to do even better next year and that is what we expect.”

Striking targets Aruna Dindane and Robert Lewandowski both look set to sign elsewhere in the next few days, with Allardyce well aware he is facing a tough task ahead in the transfer market.

“If the younger players grow we won’t suffer too many problems if we get a player who can score a goal,” he said. “We have to find the best forward we possibly can to try and score extra goals.

“About 58 per cent of our goals come from set plays, which is a huge amount because we have missed too many from elsewhere. If we had converted the chances we should have converted that percentage should be 30 per cent.

“When Blackburn signed Benni McCarthy he scored 20 odd goals and they came in the top eight, Roque Santa Cruz the next season top eight again. Put 12 clean sheets together and find a goal scorer who scores 20 goals and you are a top eight team.

“It is all about the finance. That is the problem. It is not the finding of the player, the player is there, it is whether we can finance it or not. Our targets will come and go, they always do.

“If other Premier League clubs starts competing it is going to be very difficult for us to be the winner.

“The only way we can be the winner is by selling the football club as a very, very good place to work.

"I am not dooming and glooming, this is reality.”