BOLTON WANDERERS were giving away free beer before this one – first come, first served – to try and boost attendances, but those who were tempted might in the end have preferred a draught of hemlock to ease the pain created by this dour stalemate.

Bolton protest that they are stereotyped as a dull side, but they won’t be presenting this game as an exhibit when they come to make their argument again. A Matt Taylor effort that came off the post halfway through the second half was the nearest either side came to a goal.

Of the two managers, Paul Ince can be marginally the happier. Blackburn came to their local rivals reeling from bad news. The loss of Steven Reid until the end of the season with a knee injury was bad enough, and the news that Roque Santa Cruz, the supposed target of Manchester City, had failed to recover from a hamstring problem left Ince with a difficult job to lift his team.

It meant a first league start for Robbie Fowler at the club, but it was his strike partner, Jason Roberts, who had the best chance of the first half. Two minutes before the interval Brett Emerton sent over a beautiful cross from the right that landed between Bolton’s two central defenders and right on the head of Roberts, six yards out. All the hard work seemed to have been done, but rather than nod it into a gaping goal, he let the ball slide off the side of his head and wide.

If either side deserved to be in front, it was Blackburn, who had weathered the early aerial onslaught thrown at them and come back into the game, playing slightly more attractive football.

That said, the home team might have taken the lead when a long-distance free kick bombed into the box from wide on the right by Taylor was too high even for all the giants in the box and almost crept into the corner of Paul Robinson’s net before the goalkeeper responded with an excellent diving save.

Other than that, with Bolton stringing five men across midfield, the first half was a grim struggle and the second half wasn’t much better, even though the home side did finally try to find a more subtle route through the twin towers of Chris Samba and Ryan Nelsen in the heart of the Blackburn defence.

On 72 minutes they produced the move of the game, involving nearly the entire team as the ball was swept from one side of the pitch to the other. Jlloyd Samuel and Ricardo Gardner combined well down the left and the ball was swept through to the centre, where Taylor had made a good diagonal run from the right. His momentum brought him through on goal and he tried to bend the ball around Paul Robinson, but the ball deflected off the outside of the upright. There was no further action of note.

Ince described his opponents as “very direct” and said his side had stood up to the threat well.

“We did not get drawn into their way of playing and we tried to get the ball down and play,” he said. “We have shown a never-say-die spirit in this game and against Everton. We should have got three points because Jason Roberts had a golden chance and he knows it.”

Star man:Chris Samba (Blackburn)

Referee:H Webb

Attendance:24,778

BOLTON WANDERERS:Jaaskelainen 6, Steinsson 5 (J O’Brien 78min), A O’Brien 6, Cahill 6, Samuel 6, Davies 6, Muamba 5 (Gardner 70min), McCann 5, Nolan 5, Taylor 7 (Riga 86min), Elmander 5

BLACKBURN ROVERS: Robinson 7, Simpson 7, Nelsen 8, Samba 8, Ooijer 6, Emerton 7, Warnock 5, Tugay 6, Villanueva 6 (Derbyshire 63min), Fowler 5 (Andrews 74min), Roberts 4 (McCarthy 78min)