HENRIK Pedersen has thrown down the gauntlet to the two new hit-men Sam Allardyce has drafted into his survival squad.

The dashing Dane, who has played in all but four of Wanderers' Premiershp games this season, is ready to meet the challenge from the Spaniard Salva Ballesta and Frenchman Pierre-Yves Andre.

Welcoming his two new frontline rivals, who arrived on Friday along with French defender Florent Laville, Pedersen said: "The club has to do everything to stay up and bringing new players in always helps.

"But when you are on the pitch you don't think about anything else. You just try to do your best. If you start thinking about two new strikers sitting up there in the stands waiting to get in, you just get frustrated.

"So you don't even think about it."

Pedersen's claim to have scored the second of Wanderers' goals in Saturday's crucial 4-2 victory over Birmingham has been acknowledged by most news organisations and statisticians and could stand as his fourth of the season - and not an own goal against Blues' midfielder Stephen Clemence.

Having sold top scorer Michael Ricketts and with Ballesta and Andre watching from the stands, Wanderers scored four goals for only the third time this season with Jay Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff bringing their influence to bear.

Pedersen says the two world stars are helping him improve as a player.

"You're going to become a better player yourself because you rise to their quality," he added.

"The most important thing is to have a good team who play for each other but also to have individuals who can do the unexpected and we have that with these two players."