Wanderers were back to square one in their search for a striker today after turning their back on one of Denmark's finest.

Burnden officials ditched their bid to sign Per Petersen after his club Odense slapped a staggering £2.5 million price on his head.

Now Colin Todd could switch his sights to Aberdeen's transfer-listed Scott Booth, who is valued at a knockdown £500,000.

The Burnden boss had high hopes of landing Petersen when he travelled to Denmark with chief executive Des McBain on Monday, a move exclusively revealed in main editions of last night's Evening News. But he was floored when Odense effectively scuppered the negotiations with their opening salvo.

He confirmed: "The two clubs just couldn't agree a transfer fee so we never got round to talking to the player. There was no point.

"We put in what we thought was a very good offer but they were looking for well in excess of that.

"We could have accommodated the player very comfortably and I understand he was disappointed that the deal couldn't be done."

Wanderers say the deal is now dead although Todd suggested there was a slim hope of it being revived when he said: "They could come back to us but we wouldn't be prepared to change our financial structure." The prolific Petersen, a 27-year-old Danish international, is understood to be on the shopping list of two Premiership clubs.

This is the latest of a series of setbacks Todd has suffered as he has scoured home and abroad for an experienced striker to provide competition and cover for John McGinlay and Nathan Blake.

The need for a signing was highlighted last night when McGinlay missed the FA Cup defeat by Chesterfield with a lingering calf injury while Blake signed off for a two-match suspension that could be stretched to five if the FA reject his appeal against his sending off at Stoke.

Mixu Paatelainen makes his first appearance of the season in the reserves at home to Birmingham tonight. But his long-awaited return from a foot injury is unlikely to ease the situation for at least a couple of weeks.

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