“A typical Premiership game,” Robert Green, the West Ham United goal-keeper, said, which is not an assessment that the Premier League’s marketing department will thank him for. These teams are ninth and tenth and this was predictably middling fare as two well-matched sides nullified each other, until Dean Ashton scored for the first time since September to bring the occasion out of its shell.

For drama and meaning it was a shadow of last season’s fixture, when Bobby Zamora scored what in Mourinho-speak is known as a “ghost goal” and a 2-1 win in March enhanced West Ham’s survival prospects.

Expect West Ham to climb towards the top six, then lose their grip in the spring because they are morphing into a higher-budget version of Charlton Athletic under Alan Curbishley. Difficult to beat, solid, sensible, predictable. Only four times in the league have West Ham scored more than once and all those victims were strugglers. They are poised for more progress as their extensive injury list clears but Curbishley, the manager, is still not so much rotating his squad as spinning plates and hoping nothing smashes. He left Fredrik Ljungberg out of the squad because he will need him for Wednesday’s Carling Cup quarter-final against Everton. Ashton, back from a knee problem, came off the bench yesterday but will probably start against Everton. “He looked very sharp,” Curbishley said.

Another boost for West Ham was the fact that Scott Parker played 90 minutes for the first time this season.

“I’ve got players coming back and having to get fit in the first team, that’s very difficult,” Curbishley said. “The squad has stood firm and it’s made us stronger because people have come in and done a job. Competition [for places] is what we need.”

Blackburn were without David Bentley for the first time this term and lacked invention in the first half. They won every game in October but only once since. “Teams come here now recognising the threat we pose and try and do something about it,” Mark Hughes, the manager, said. The visiting team looked more dangerous after Ashton’s arrival after half-time as a replacement for the injured Matthew Etherington. The goal came after 52 minutes. Nolberto Solano’s clever pass left the Blackburn defence flat-footed and George McCartney’s low cross gave Ashton an easy finish for the fourth goal of his stunted season. He missed an equally simple chance late on, after Roque Santa Cruz had spurned two fine opportunities to give Blackburn the point their creativity in the second period deserved, while Green saved well from Tugay Kerimoglu’s long-range effort. “Gritty,” Curbishley said. Which is typical West Ham these days.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): B Friedel 7 - B Emerton 6, C Samba 7, A Ooijer 6, S Warnock 5 – D Dunn 5 (sub: S Reid, 71min), A Mokoena 5 (sub: R Savage, 46 5), Tugay Kerimoglu 6, M G Pedersen 6 (sub: J Roberts, 76) – B McCarthy 7, R Santa Cruz 5. Substitutes not used: J Brown, M Derbyshire. Booked: Ooijer. Next: Wigan Athletic (a).

West Ham United (442): R Green 7 – L Neill 6, D Gabbidon 6, M Upson 6, G McCartney 7 – N Solano 6 (sub: J Spector, 76), S Parker 7, H Mullins 6, M Etherington 6 (sub: D Ashton, 46 8) – L Boa Morte 7, C Cole 6 (sub: H Camara, 88). Substitutes not used: R Wright, M Noble. Booked: Cole. Next: Everton (h).