HAMILTON and Alonso, Woods and Mickelson, Jordan and Peter Andre. These were the dream partnerships that were doomed to failure.

Now, without any fear of contradiction, Blackburn Rovers fans can add Roque Santa Cruz and Benni McCarthy to the list.

Like Joey Barton and the concept of self-control, they simply didn’t go together.

Both arrived at Ewood Park with respected goalscoring records and both, at least sporadically, lived up to their individual reputations.

But any hopes that Roque and Benni would become the new SAS plummeted as rapidly as Newcastle United go through messiahs.

When Santa Cruz was firing, McCarthy was not. When Santa Cruz was injured – and he often was – McCarthy started to find the net.

Indeed, it often took the presence of the workaholic Jason Roberts as a strike partner to coax the best form out of either of them.

It was one of those Newcastle messiahs, Kevin Keegan, who always had a policy of buying players to fit partnerships during his more fruitful first spell in charge at St James’ Park.

Hence there was success with Ferdinand and Beardsley up front, Ginola and Beresford on the left, Gillespie and, er, Warren Barton on the right.

Now, as Rovers finally get the chance to replace the departed Santa Cruz, they must not just think about who is the best striker available – but who is the best striker available to play alongside McCarthy.

McCarthy has proved something of an enigma for some time now.

A player who is capable of being one of the most clinical goalscorers in the Premier League, yet has at times found himself on the bench while the likes of Chris Samba or Morten Gamst Pedersen have ploughed a lone furrow up front.

He scored 24 goals in one season alone before Santa Cruz joined him at Rovers, but just 24 combined in the two seasons that followed.

The answer may lie with the ego that accompanies many of the Premier League’s top strikers.

McCarthy was the main man at Ewood until Santa Cruz arrived and started to eclipse his goalscoring feats.

Whatever his true thoughts, he has sometimes appeared a disinterested figure in recent times.

So the secret may be to find a striker who is not only capable of replacing Santa Cruz’s physical style, but who also does not possess the ego to hamper McCarthy’s form.

Given that such a forward must fall within Rovers’ budget, both in terms of a fee and wages, the task facing Sam Allardyce is no simple one.

Of all the names so far linked with Rovers – and, boy, have there been plenty – Peter Crouch and James Beattie appear closest to fitting the bill.

They are goalscorers whose styles might complement that of McCarthy, yet who seem to be devoid of the superstar attitude that so many players possess these days.

Whether Rovers can afford them and their respective clubs are willing to sell would be a different matter.

But the chance of a truly lethal strike partnership has arisen once more.

A chance it would be a shame to miss.