JAY Spearing has backed Jermaine Beckford and Craig Davies to handle the pressure of Wanderers’ short-term striker shortage.

As the search continues for a target man, the Wanderers skipper admitted losing out on long-time target Lukas Jutkiewicz came as a blow to the camp.

Dougie Freedman has warned he will not be bringing in short-term fixes – leaving much of the goal burden on the shoulders of his two existing senior strikers.

Spearing sees no reason why Beckford and Davies cannot prosper under the weight of extra responsibility.

“We’ve got strikers here who have got plenty of experience,” he told The Bolton News. “They are top players and they have scored goals in the Championship and we’ll need them to do it again. I know they can.

“If the Gaffer wants to bring anyone else in then it’s up to him – all we can do is make sure we give them every chance to succeed.

“We won’t be getting Lukas (Jutkiewicz) back but speaking on behalf of all the lads, we wish him all the best because he did a tremendous job for us last year.

“He scored a lot of important goals and obviously we’re a bit gutted he hasn’t come back. But we have to move on.”

Wanderers returned from their tour of Scandinavia with a 1-1 draw at Macclesfield Town on Friday night. But the fact that Freedman rested so many of his first choice players was an indication of the heavy workload on tour.

Spearing believes the time away was a success despite a mixed bag of results.

“The gaffer and the staff broke things up for us – there was plenty to do, and we got time to go out and do our own thing, go for a coffee, have a walk round town,” he said.

“But there was a lot of work. Sometimes we were up at 7am and swimming, down at the training ground at 11am and again at 5pm. It was tough but it gets us to where we need to be.”