Blessed with six strikers following the arrival of Jon Parkin and Stephen Elliott over the past week, the Scot is expecting to have the most painful selection headache of his 10 months as a manager.

Chris Brown is hoping to be fit for the Ricoh Arena, meaning Irvine will have to disappoint at least two, possibly even three, of his half-dozen as he picks a squad capable of maitaining North End's unbeaten run in the league.

"We've got some good options now," he told the Evening Post. "We had some before, but there are more permutations now.

"It is going to mean a massive headache for me, there's no doubt about that.

"The lads are all desperate to play and that gives me a problem.

"But the fact is it is a far better headache to have than the other way round where we don't have enough strikers.

"We have got people with good goalscoring records and that is really important.

"We have talked about a lack of goals so far this season. Well, we feel that adding goals to this team has got to be good."

Brown's possible return to the fold for the first time this season following an ankle problem and sciatica means that, with 6ft 4in Parkin, North End possess an huge aerial threat if Irvine decides to use it.

He also has the predatory instincts of Neil Mellor and new boy Elliott.

And in addition he has Karl Hawley and Brett Ormerod who can both cause defences trouble on the ground.

"The two big ones, Browny and Jon, probably play more with their backs to goal," Irvine said.

"Karl is also comfortable playing like that and holding the ball up. Mellor, Brett and Stephen want to run in behind defences. So it is a nice balance.

"I have a lot of thinking to do before the Coventry game."

With Simon Whaley also pushing to play up front after getting a taste for the striker role in the early games of the season, Irvine effectively has seven players he can now call on to spearhead the attack.

Full story in Friday's Evening Post