MANAGER Paul Lambert fears he won't see a penny of the £210,000 Wanderers will receive from selling striker Jermaine Easter to Plymouth Argyle.

Blues finally parted company with their want-away Welsh international on Friday after admitting there was no point in keeping the unhappy 25-year-old at the club.

He has joined the Championship side on loan with the permanent switch to be completed when the transfer window reopens in January.

But Lambert does not expect to see any of the £210,000 fee, which includes sell on clauses, reinvested in his forward line as he hunts a replacement for last season's top scorer.

The manager told Midweek: "I don't think I'll get any of the money."

He expects it to go into the general coffers as the club looks to cut back on its losses which are running at £4million.

Wanderers were forced to accept a bid £90,000 lower than Plymouth offered at the end of August after being backed into a corner by Easter who said he no longer wanted to play for the club.

But Lambert - who has now got just two strikers in Scott McGleish and John Sutton, plus on-loan teenager Reuben Reid - insists it was good business for the striker Blues signed from Stockport County years ago.

He said: "It wasn't going to benefit the club trying to keep Jermaine because we had a player who didn't want to play for us. His head wasn't in the same focus as the other lads and we would have ended up losing a lot of money which we can't afford to do.

"This way we have received a bit of money and made a profit on a player we bought for £80,000."

Easter scored 24 times last season and with skipper Tommy Mooney having left in the summer it means that Wycombe have now lost 37 goals from the team which missed out on the play-offs last season.

Blues made light of Easter's absence on Saturday though with Sutton and Sergio Torres both on target in a 2-2 draw away at Chester City.