SAM Allardyce reflected today on Wanderers' failure to take the chances that could lead them to Premiership stability.

"It's going to cost us dear unless we put that right," the manager said.

Allardyce voiced his concern after seeing Wanderers suffer their fifth defeat in eight games at Middlesbrough.

He saw chances missed at The Riverside but it was not this particular result - Boro were good value for their 2-0 win - that prompted him to question the potency of his strikeforce but the accumulation of the various opportunities squandered over the first two months of the season.

Of the eight goals Wanderers have scored to date, two have come from penalties, two from set-pieces and one - Gareth Farrelly's at Arsenal - from a fluke.

There were even chances at Middlesbrough which, if taken, might have rescued an unlikely and undeserved point. But that only served to fuel Allardyce's frustrations.

"How long do we have to wait until one goes in?" he asked. "Most of our goals have come from set plays but we've created an awful lot of opportunities from open play which haven't been taken. And that's a big concern for me."

Michael Ricketts and Youri Djorjkaeff squandered the best chances - albeit at a time when Boro had the game virtually sewn up.

But it was the 83rd minute miss the manager focused on when he spoke of his particular concern that Ricketts' only goals since January are the two penalties he has scored against Fulham and Villa this season.

"It's a worry for me and it's a worry for Michael at the moment," he said. "But if he keeps getting in those positions he'll hopefully get back on the scoring trail because we need him to be like that."