THE fans are flocking to get behind Wanderers in Sunday's Premiership derby at Blackburn Rovers.

There has been a surge of sales for cut-priced tickets for the Ewood Park showdown since Sunday's win at Newcastle took the Whites back up to third in the table.

Tickets, which have been slashed to less than half price in a novel crowd-pulling initiative by Rovers, were already selling steadily but the Tyneside triumph has sparked a flurry of activity at the Reebok over the past two days.

Wanderers sold out of their initial allocation of 4,100 for the lower tier of the Darwen End yesterday and were immediately given a further 1,500 for the upper tier.

Overall sales figures have already topped 20,000, which is significantly up on last season's attendance of 18,180, suggesting the revolutionary cut-price deal - adult tickets are priced £15 with concessions £5 - has been a big attraction.

But Wanderers believe it is three successive Premiership wins - they beat Portsmouth and Liverpool before ending their 47-year bogey at St James' Park - that has sparked renewed interest among their own supporters.

"From what we are hearing from our fans, it is recent results - and particularly that great victory at Newcastle - that has created such a big demand for Blackburn tickets," a spokesman said.

"The fans want to come out in force in the hope of seeing us get another good result in what is now a massive game for us as we look to keep this impressive run going."

On the field, the match will pitch together two of the most in-form strikers in the Premier League.

According to the Actim Index - the official player ratings of the Barclays Premiership - Wanderers' Senegal ace El-Hadji Diouf moved up to third in the rankings with his two-goal match-winning performance at Newcastle while Rovers' South African international, Benni McCarthy, who scored in the 1-1 draw at Anfield on Saturday, is ranked just one place lower.

Everton's Andrew Johnson is top of the strikers' chart.

Sam Allardyce, who has had his squad strengthened by the return to fitness of Quinton Fortune, has no new injury worries ahead of the derby and is hoping his long-term casualty list will ease by the end of the month.

Republic of Ireland international Joey O'Brien, who has not played this season, is now doing gym work as the first phase of his rehabilitation after undergoing minor surgery last week to resolve a knee problem, and could be back in full training in two weeks.

Henrik Pedersen, who has struggled to shake off a long-standing Achilles injury could be back in reserve team action within a week or 10 days and Ricardo Gardner, who has not played since suffering the third cruciate knee ligament injury of his career at the end of last season, is still on course for a comeback at the end of October or early November.