ANTHONY Barness did enough in the first six weeks of the season to suggest that, despite being bought as a full-back, he'd become a versatile addition to the Wanderers' squad.

But, after featuring in the first 11 games in a variety of positions, the former Charlton defender made only three league starts in six months.

Simon Charlton had an equally frustrating time.

With a wealth of experience, including more than a century of games in the Premiership, he also came to the Reebok on a summer free after seeing out his contract with Birmingham and looked another good acquisition.

But a pulled a hamstring in the second game of the season at West Brom, was an early setback and, apart from a six-match run in October, he too was restricted by injury and the form of others, to watching much of the season's events from the sidelines.

It wasn't to their liking but they've both been in the game long enough to know things can change for the better just as rapidly as taking a turn for the worse and when the chances came, they made the most of them - Charlton first, when he was recalled for the Gillingham game on March 10, then Barness, who made a shock return at Crystal Palace.

"Simon and Anthony have shown in the way they've played since I brought them back that it hurt them being out of the side," Sam Allardyce said, paying tribute to the players' professionalism and determination.

Charlton was never happy watching from the stands but accepted the situation - "I'd been injured and, when I was fit I couldn't get back in because the team was doing so well. I understood that," he explained.

But that didn't stop him going in to see the manager and asking where he stood. Patience was the keyword.

Barness admits now that there were times he felt like an outsider as his team-mates put together the mid-winter run that saw them go close to challenging Fulham's dominance of the division.

Yet they both played vital roles in the frantic end of season scrap that saw the Wanderers' defence get back to its solid and reliable best with a hat-trick of clean sheets that, for a few exciting days, breathed new life into their hopes of autoamtic promotion.