Wanderers could start where they left off so impressively at the Hawthorns on Saturday when they kick off their Worthington Cup campaign at the Reebok tomorrow.

Sam Allardyce is considering starting the first round tie against Macclesfield with Dean Holdsworth and Ian Marshall as strike partners.

But he admits he is in a quandary.

"It's an extremely difficult decision," the Wanderers' boss confessed today as he had one eye on his manpower shortage and the other on a cup run.

"I have to try to make a selection that gives us a good side out there while at the same time taking the opportunity to rest one or two players.

"I'm short of numbers but I don't want us too short in terms of experience. We need to come out of tomorrow night's game with a victory to take to their place. I don't want to overdo it at this stage of the season with certain players but I want to maintain our position in the Worthington Cup, especially after going all the way to the semi-final last year.

"We'll wait and see how everyone is, fitness-wise." Simon Charlton joined the overloaded casualty laist when he sustained a hamstrting injury after just 10 minutes at West Brom and Gudni Bergsson, who was outstanding in the 2-0 win, ended the game limping after taking a knock.

But the manager eased concerns over the fitness of loan striker Isaiah Rankin, who opened his scoring account with the first goal, and John O'Kane, who switched to left wing-back when Leam Richardson went on for Charlton. They were replaced respectively by Holdsworth and Marshall in the second half, explaining that both substitutions were tactical.

Holdsworth looked impressive on his comeback from the shoulder injury he sustained in the first game of the United States tour, going close with one shot and having a hand in Gareth Farrelly's goal 15 minutes from time that killed off any hopes Albion had of rescuing a point.