Hammers grind out dour draw at Blackburn

Blackburn were left to rue a glaring miss by teenager David Hoilett as West Ham ground out a 0-0 draw at Ewood Park on Saturday.

Hoilett, 19, had a late opportunity to seal the points for Rovers after coming on as a substitute, but the Canadian striker’s chip over Robert Green dropped onto the top of the net.

While Rovers boss Sam Allardyce was cursing Hoilett’s miss, at least Rovers secured their first point of the season – after defeats to Manchester City and Sunderland – which meant they avoided equalling their worst start to a season since 1947/48.

West Ham were not much better, with Carlton Cole – starved of service and support – having little chance of showing the form of an England international.

Blackburn midfielder David Dunn, on his first league appearance since April, lofted over the ninth-minute free-kick which Christopher Samba headed back across goal but the stretching Jason Roberts could not divert the ball in.

Samba was then involved at the other end as some neat interplay between Junior Stanislas and Luis Jimenez set up Cole only for his shot to be blocked by the big Rovers defender.

The England striker was being kept on a tight rein by the centre-back but when he burst into the left of the penalty Samba slipped to leave Cole clear.

He had a narrow angle from which to shoot but curled his right-footed effort wide of the far post without drawing Paul Robinson into a save.

Three minutes into the second half Cole lashed a 20-yard shot over Robinson’s crossbar.

Rovers striker Roberts was becoming increasingly isolated up front and in an attempt to counter that manager Sam Allardyce replaced holding midfielder Steven Nzonzi with Hoilett.

West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola responded by replacing Jimenez with Kieron Dyer, making only his 10th appearance for the Hammers since August 2007.

Hoilett’s first involvement was to shoot into the side-netting from Dunn’s reverse pass in the 68th minute before returning the favour only for the midfielder to shoot straight at Green from 25 yards.

It was Hoilett who should have broken the deadlock in the 77th minute when Dunn picked him out on a swift counter-attack with an incisive outside-of-the-foot pass.

Green raced out to meet the youngster, who tried an audacious 20-yard chip which landed on the roof of the net.