SAM Allardyce set his sights back on Europe today as he handed down a challenge to his crestfallen Carling Cup finalists.

The Wanderers' boss admits the scars of the Millennium Stadium defeat will take time to heal but he says qualifying for the UEFA Cup through the Premiership route would go a long way to making up for what he regards as one of the greatest disappointments of his career.

And he insists he is not asking for a lot - just a repeat of the form they produced in last season's nail-biting but ultimately successful run-in, starting at Birmingham tomorrow.

"The last quarter of the last two seasons have seen us have our best runs and, if we can go on from here in the same vein, we will finish well," he said.

"It would be more satisfying if we could qualify for Europe through the league rather than by winning the cup final but we'll have to see whether they can take up the challenge and not let the season peter out.

"We're still hurting; you never really get over it because it was the biggest day in my life and the same for many of the players. But a good result tomorrow will help."

Wanderers will be as near to full strength as they can possibly be, if Stelios recovers from a slight groin strain he picked up in the reserves on Tuesday, but they know they could hardly have a tougher test of their ability and their character than a trip to St Andrew's, where Cardiff victors Middlesbrough were beaten 3-1 on Wednesday night.

"Birmingham are the hardest working side in the league and they'll be looking to do to us what they did to the cup winners," Allardyce warned.

The manager has spent much of his time this week trying to inspire a positive reaction from his players as they go into a 12-match run-in needing just six points to reach the psyshologically important 40-points mark. But, force of managerial habit, means he cannot resist a glance down the league to the relegation zone 10 points below and will not be entirely happy until the sums add up.

"The requirement is still to get to 40 points as soon as we can," he said.

"Then we'll see if we can go onwards and upwards. Hopefully we can get our Premiership place secured then look at the number of games we have left.

"I just hope we aren't lulled into our worst run of the season and start getting worried about getting enough points ... but we'll soon find out because with Birmingham tomorrow then Chelsea and Arsenal to come, this could be a very difficult period for us.

"There's always the odd fluke - like West Ham last season. West Brom went down with 23, Sunderland went down with 19 and West Ham had 42 points and still went down. We finished with 44. So you never know.

"That's something we don't want to be think about, if we can help it. We don't want the season to end in obscurity."