There's no disguising the fact that this was poor fare until about the last 20 minutes and also a severe disappointment in view of the expected performance resulting from the G&S takeover in mid-week. It had surely been hoped that the appearance of Gold and Sullivan in the Director's box and a bit of home crowd fervour would drive the home side onto a victory they might expect against a side they traditionally do well against. It wasn't to be though as West Ham spluttered through a pretty tiresome 90 minutes.

On balance it may be Blackburn who will go away thinking they should have got more from the match so I suppose there is some element in saying the home side did well to take a point, but this toothless display does little to dispel the gloom and threat of relegation, and only Gold and Sullivan's loosening of the purse strings is likely to blow those cobwebs away.

In a tedious first half only Pedersen's 25 yard free kick that came back off the crossbar was worth even noting and there was little continued pressure or danger from either side leaving the disgruntled crowd hoping for more excitement in the second period. But there was little change until the hour was up and Carlton Cole was sent on to try and inject some fire into the forward line.

In fact, Cole was crucial to the game but not in the way expected as the striker did superbly well to clear a Gael Givet shot off the line when it almost looked as if it had gone over. Replays show the initial shot may have struck Mark Noble on the arm but a penalty would have been harsh and Blackburn didn't seem much interested in persuing the issue. Jason Roberts who had come on as substitute for Blackburn after 71 minutes then had a glorious chance to score, shrugging off James Tomkins and getting in a shot that Green did well to get down too although the striker would surely have reflected that he had more time and opportunity to have put the ball in an area that the Hammers keeper couldn't have reached.

As if sensing that they could actually lose all three points, the Hammers at last were spurred into some sort of action and applied some pressure of their own; Paul Robinson superbly saving Diamanti's dipping free kick before Scott Parker - West Ham's best player when he came on as a substitute with 20 minutes remaining - concluded an excellent run by putting the ball across an empty net with no Hammers player within spitting distance.

The game ended in a stalemate leaving West Ham praying that the reported arrival of Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy comes off to add a bit of weight to a injury strewn, toothless front line. Call me a cynic but I wonder if we hadn't been playing the Ewood Park outfit if the reported 'problems' might not have been concluded earlier.