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Grant refusing to give up hope

Avram Grant looks folorn © Getty Images

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West Ham manager Avram Grant insists he remains confident of Premier League survival after the 1-1 draw at home to Blackburn.

Jason Roberts handed Rovers an early lead, but West Ham fought back and earned a point when Thomas Hitzlsperger lashed home with 12 minutes remaining.

He said: "I think I'm confident. We have a chance to stay up, of course. But first we need to win at Wigan. If we win against Wigan, we'll be above them. This is the most important game. Two games before the end, this is the most important game. We need to win.

"Maybe that was the story of our season today. We were on top of the other team, created a lot of chances, and had good moments in the last ten minutes. But we didn't score. It's happened again and again, and it's cost us two points. But we've kept our chances alive.''

The Hammers were once more without the inspiration of midfielder Scott Parker and were woefully short of ideas until Hitzlsperger's late bullet.

Grant fielded four strikers for most of the second half but his side resorted all too often to hitting the ball long and Rovers defender Chris Samba was immense in dealing with the threat.

Substitute Robbie Keane missed an open goal with time running out and Grant admitted that they badly need Parker to recover from his Achilles injury before next Saturday.

He said: "Every week we say 'next week' with Scott. No one more than me wants him to play, but if he cannot, he cannot. I didn't think it was such a bad injury, but we've missed him since Manchester United. We want him to play. There is no one more than me who wants him to play. He's more than a player for me.

"I think a player like Robbie Keane, and others that missed today like Demba Ba, want to score. They didn't score, but I wish I knew why. I cannot question the effort and I will not criticise the players for their effort. But we didn't score.''

Blackburn boss Steve Kean feared the worst when Keane was handed his late chance but felt his side were leaving London with a "big point''.

Kean said: "When it gets flashed across the six-yard box and you see Robbie Keane there, you think he's going to open up his body and it'll fly in. But he didn't manage to connect properly. It's a big point. I think we came to set up and be hard to break down, and try to fight.

"They had to come out and try to beat us, and that would leave space to attack in the full-back areas. We needed the second goal for a cushion, but we knew they'd throw all sorts of attackers on and try to unblock us. We've had five positive results in the last seven matches, so we're one of the form teams in the bottom half. That's a positive we'll be stressing to the lads. I don't know what we'll need, but we'll try and keep picking up points.''

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