THE rest of the Premiership may consider Wanderers somewhat lacking in top flight experience but there are still a number of Reebok players, who have sampled life at the top.

Colin Hendry, Dean Holdsworth, Gudni Bergsson and Ian Marshall all have a vast knowledge of life in the Premiership and that could prove valuable over the next nine months.

But there also others who have seen action at the top. Midfield man Per Frandsen played for Wanderers and Blackburn in the Premiership, Gareth Farrelly appeared for Everton while, until his transfer to the Reebok, Paul Warhurst had played all his career in the elite division.

Sam Allardyce's job is to blend that vast amount of individual experience with the emerging talent of younger players such as Kevin Nolan, Leam Richardson, Ricardo Gardner and Michael Ricketts and how successful he is in that will ultimately determine Wanderers' destiny.

However, the experience in the side is also linked with age and a defensive line-up that includes Hendry, Bergsson and Whitlow means the Wanderers could field the oldest defensive line-up in the league.

Yet all three have shown that it is not always about pace; shrewd judgement and an awareness to size up a developing situation can often make up for the lack of a yard of pace.

Allardyce knows that it is one area of his side that other teams will have looked at, but didn't First Division teams do that last season?

And the manager is quick to remind people how the so-called shooting stars of the future, the likes of West Brom pair Lee Hughes and Jason Roberts plus Preston's David Healy and Jon Macken, were all tamed into submission by Hendry and Bergsson.

Dean Holdsworth is another player hoping to re-establish himself in the Premiership. He could have moved away from the Reebok in the close season but ignored chances to rejoin Wimbedon to chase goals in the Premiership.

He might lack a touch of pace but there's no shortage of good running around him in new signings Henrik Pedersen and Akinori Nishizawa and Deano will fancy his chances in and around the box.

Allardyce himself will also be looked on as something of a novice in terms of being a Premiership manager but he has served his time in the lower divisions with no shortage of success,

Under his charge, the backroom staff at the Reebok now embrace the latest in football hi-tech and Allardyce is forward thinking enough to accept just how valuable that is to the modern game.

Wanderers may be looked at as newcomers into the big arena but everything at the Reebok is geared to the future; the stadium, the team and the development of the business as a whole.

And the success of that hinges on an extended stay in the Premiership. To a certain extent last season's promotion came early -- the Wanderers business plan had scheduled Premierhip football in a couple of years. Having achieved that goal, Sam and his team are not in the mood to waste the chance.