THERE was light at the end of the injury tunnel today but Sam Allardyce wasn't getting carried away ... no more than he's getting too excited about Wanderers being third in the league.

Mark Fish and Gareth Farrelly returned to training to ease the manager's selection problems for tomorrow's Reebok clash with Portsmouth.

And with Simon Charlton on his way back and Robbie Elliott and Paul Warhurst tipped to get the green light next week, welcome relief could be just round the corner.

"But don't go thinking our problems are over," Allardyce insisted. "Mark Fish and Gareth Farrelly could be back with us tomorrow but the others are two or three weeks away from even being considered for the first team.

"That's not to say that we won't press them into service if we're desperate!"

Allardyce doesn't mind admitting that things have already reached desperation point this season. Yet, for all their problems, Wanderers have managed to defy the odds with an unbeaten start that has put them among the Division One pacemakers, and with a club record into the bargain.

"I can't ever remember a time in my managerial career when I've had to send 11 players out onto the field without having worked with them on the training ground and having only been able to show them on a blackboard how I wanted them to play," he explains, illustrating the adversity under which he has operated in the opening weeks of the season.

"And I have to admit that it showed in our performance on Tuesday night at Grimsby."

Wanderers didn't cover themselves in glory with their performance at Blundell Park but the 1-0 win - courtesy of Michael Ricketts' fifth goal of the season - earned them a place in history as the only Bolton team to win their first four away games.

"We've given ourselves a fantastic start," Allardyce acknowledges, anxious not to diminish the achievement, "and, if we can maintain it, we'll start making it more and more difficult for the teams behind us.

"But we're going to have to compete at a higher level over the next month or so. After Portsmouth tomorrow we've got Blackburn away, Fulham here and soon have to go to Watford. No disrespect to whoever else we've played, but their squads and their financial clout make them the big-hitters of this division.

"Only when we've come through those games will we be able to know how we compare with the best."