MICHAEL Ricketts did not make a big deal out of being "dropped" for the Blackburn game - and it is just as well.

Because, as sure as night follows day, Wanderers are going to need the Reebok Rocket back at his free-scoring best if they are to beat the drop.

And the last thing Sam Allardyce wants is his top scorer's confidence being dented.

On form, Ricketts is formidable - a point illustrated by the 39 goals he has netted since his move from Walsall two summers ago.

But he has gone off the boil in recent weeks - noteably since he got the call from Sven Goran Eriksson and was handed his first England cap.

Now no-one - least of all the lad himself - is saying he hit the heights that night but he certainly did not deserve the mauling he got from the national media. The Press are often quick to judge and notoriously savage in their criticism but to dismiss him, as some did, on the strength of his first 45 minutes in an England shirt - and in an experimental team - was indecently harsh, even by their standards.

Sam Allardyce has made his feelings known to the newspapermen concerned (mainly London-based) and rapped back on Ricketts' behalf. But he fears the whole England experience has been a distraction Wanderers can ill-afford.

That, plus the fact that he has ploughed a lone furrow up front for most of the season, caused him to relegate his top scorer to the bench for the Blackburn game. Had all things been equal, he would have been on the sideline for the Sunderland game as well.

As it happened, 24 hours after hinting that it was subs' duties again for Ricketts, the manager had no option but to draft him back into the front line when the bruising in Fredi Bobic's calf spread to his ankle.

It was not, as we now know, the big man's night.

He missed a chance! Not a criminal offence, of course, but not something we have come to expect of Ricketts whose goals to chances ratio would make him one of the hottest of properties if he was ever put on the market.

There have been other noteable misses - against Blackburn, for instance, and one particular wayward shot at Middlesbrough that would have converted a draw into a priceless victory. Then there was ... and ... in fact, not that many when you come to think of it!

"He hasn't been playing well," the argument goes. But when did Michael Ricketts play particularly well and not score?

Like all good strikers, goals are his stock in trade. Many, when they are not scoring, look very ordinary indeed. Witness Kevin Phillips' performance at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night. He missed a sitter early on and, apart from his lay-off for Jason McAteer's matchwinning goal, his contribution was particularly unremarkable.

Even Peter Reid, who will support his players to the hilt, was prompted to remark: "Kevin Phillips is a top class striker but it just isn't going for him. If he started scoring again it would be a massive bonus for us."

Likewise, if Ricketts could get back into his scoring stride, Wanderers' run-in could become a walk in the park.

Thankfully the man himself appears to be unfazed.

"While I would like to start all the games I'm available for, I understood Sam Allardyce's reasons," he said after being dropped for last Saturday's derby.

"He felt I needed a bit of a rest because I've played a lot of games lately and that was okay. I like watching the games anyway!"

Wanderers fans will be hoping he won't be watching too many of the last nine.