The cuts and bruises will last longer than the memories after a scrappy encounter of precious little action that nevertheless left plenty to reflect upon. Both teams will consider the most slapdash of goalless draws last night as a missed opportunity, but West Bromwich Albion will be especially disappointed not to have converted some excellent chances and cut the gap farther at the bottom of the Barclays Premier League.

The FA could be asked to look at Jonas Olsson’s stray elbow, which caught Robert Green, the West Ham United goalkeeper, in the face as Shelton Martis arrived at the back post to hit the crossbar with a header. Graham Poll, the former referee, said that the West Brom defender would have been dismissed had Mark Halsey, the referee, seen the “deliberate” incident. Green was more emphatic. “Looking at the replays on the television, he’s caught me with a good one,” Green said. “Luckily it was on a sturdy part of my face rather than an eye socket or my nose. That could have done me some proper damage but I’ll live to fight another day.”

Of wider concern to the FA will be Matthew Upson suffering a recurrence of a calf injury, in front of Fabio Capello, the England manager. The defender was carried off on a stretcher in the first half and could miss England’s friendly against Slovakia a week on Saturday and the World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine the following Wednesday. Gianfranco Zola, the West Ham manager, was pleased with the point, but victories for Wigan Athletic and Fulham on Saturday have tightened the race for a European place. His team’s relaxed and casual performance could perhaps have been the consequence of lingering effects of their training camp in Spain last week. It served to encourage West Brom, who fashioned the best opportunities, only to be denied by Green and, on one occasion, the referee.

Tony Mowbray, the West Brom manager, was bitterly disappointed that Halsey turned down an appeal for a penalty when Chris Brunt’s inswinging corner floated to the far post and Lucas Neill appeared to tug Paul Robinson’s shirt. “We were hard done by and the referee missed that one,” Mowbray said.

Mowbray left out Ryan Donk and Abdoulaye Méïté, his usual central defensive pairing, and pushed Jonathan Greening into an unfamiliar position behind Marc-Antoine Fortuné. The attacking pairing combined for Fortuné to blast into the side-netting from a tight angle, but they came closer soon after. James Morrison’s mazy run across the pitch and some shoddy defending from James Tomkins allowed the West Brom winger to close in on goal but his low shot was saved. After the break, Greening chipped over when bearing down on goal.

“We should have won but we haven’t got the quality to keep a clean sheet and score,” Mowbray said.

The result exposed the weaknesses in West Ham’s depleted squad. Passes went astray, control was poor and there was little penetrative drive from a narrow midfield missing Valon Behrami and Jack Collison, two energetic players. There was no focal point in attack in the absence of Carlton Cole, who was suspended, and Freddie Sears was again too lightweight. His preference to run looking for passes behind the defence and David Di Michele’s desire to drop deep led to a shapeless attacking formation. Sears did threaten with a low drive but it was blocked by Martis.

West Ham United (4-4-2): R Green — L Neill, J Tomkins, M Upson (sub: J Spector, 29min), H Ilunga — M Noble (sub: L Boa Morte, 82), S Parker, R Kovac, Savio (sub: J Stanislas, 68) — D Di Michele, F Sears. Substitutes not used: J Lastuvka, W López, D Tristán, J Payne. Booked: Savio.

West Bromwich Albion (4-4-1-1): S Carson — G Zuiverloon, S Martis, J Olsson, P Robinson — J Morrison (sub: F Teixeira, 88), R Koren, G Dorrans, C Brunt (sub: J Simpson, 80) — J Greening — M-A Fortuné (sub: L Moore, 80). Substitutes not used: D Kiely, C Hoefkens, M Cech, R Bednar. Booked: Olsson.

Referee: M Halsey.