Blackburn rekindled their goalscoring touch against a West Ham team they have loved taking apart in previous seasons at Ewood Park.

Manager Mark Hughes' side came into the game without a goal in their previous three Premiership matches, but they ended the drought in style with three second-half strikes.

It is now seven wins and a draw in their last eight matches with the Hammers on home soil, taking their tally to 26 goals in the process.

The statistic is all the more remarkable as they were without six-goal leading scorer Craig Bellamy, who is out until Christmas with a hamstring injury sustained in training on Wednesday.

As if that was not bad enough for Hughes, he was forced to field an untried centre-back pairing of Zurab Khizanishvili and Lucas Neill.

Captain Andy Todd, serving a one-match ban following his sending off for deliberate handball in last weekend's 2-0 home defeat to Everton, was joined on the sidelines by regular centre-half partner Ryan Nelsen due to a recurrence of a hamstring problem.

Yet it was Blackburn who carried the early fight to the Hammers as they have replaced their more earthy approach with a passing game to rival the bigger clubs.

They made a storming start to this game as they looked to end their lean spell, with the woodwork denying them a fourth-minute lead.

When David Bentley was brought down five yards outside the area and up stepped Robbie Savage - restored to the line-up after sitting on the bench against Everton - for a curling free-kick that struck the bar.

Savage was given a another bite of the cherry, though, as referee Mike Riley booked Mark Noble for encroachment, only for the former Wales international to drive his second attempt into the wall.

Blackburn continued to look the more threatening and in the 13th minute were again within a whisker of taking the lead.

Steven Reid, playing at right-back with Neill in the centre, fed Brett Emerton down the wing for the Australia international to in turn deliver an incisive low ball into the area.

Dickov managed to get in front of the covering Anton Ferdinand, only to steer his flicked effort from six yards within inches of the right-hand post.

Six minutes later West Ham defender Danny Gabbidon was taken off on a stretcher with a deep gash to his left knee. The Wales international had been nudged into the advertising hoardings to the left of the West Ham goal by Morten Gamst Pedersen and required five minutes of treatment.

Blackburn suffered as a consequence, and in the first minute of added time they were torn apart, with Bobby Zamora rifling a fine drive beyond the advancing Brad Friedel after being played in by Marlon Harewood.

If Noble had found the target with an unchallenged header two minutes after the restart then the game would have been beyond Blackburn, but instead what followed was explosive entertainment.

Rovers fans had to wait five hours and 25 minutes for a goal - and then two come along within minutes.

After what appeared to be a cast-iron penalty when Ferdinand chopped down Paul Dickov, back after a two-game absence with a thigh injury, Riley gave a spot-kick for a Tomas Repka handball.

That allowed Dickov to drive home Blackburn's equaliser in the 55th minute, before then sidefooting home his sixth goal of the season in the 57th.

The Scot arrived on the end of a Pedersen cross which looped its way to the far post off Christian Dailly, the former Blackburn defender who had earlier replaced Gabbidon.

The lead, though, lasted just six minutes as West Ham drew level with Harewood heading home a Zamora cross, despite Savage attempting to flick the ball away with his hand.

Savage was again denied by the woodwork, rattling the crossbar with another curling free-kick after Repka had fouled 61st-minute substitute Shefki Kuqi.

But from the rebound, Dailly punted the ball up the field where Khizanishvili made a hash of an attempted header back to Friedel.

That allowed Harewood to race through on goal, only to sky a 16-yard shot over the bar.

The reprieve was crucial because in the 76th minute came the winner, with Kuqi outjumping Dailly to a raking cross-field pass from Michael Gray.

The Finn then beat the Scot to the loose ball which had bounced behind them before shaking off Ferdinand's challenge and scoring his fourth goal of the season off the underside of the bar.

Teams

Blackburn Friedel, Reid, Neill, Khizanishvili, Gray, Emerton (Kuqi 61), Savage, Tugay (Mokoena 79), Pedersen, Bentley (Jansen 90), Dickov.

Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Thompson.

Booked: Tugay, Gray, Dickov.

Goals: Dickov 56 pen, 57, Kuqi 76.

West Ham Carroll, Repka, Ferdinand, Gabbidon (Dailly 21), Konchesky, Benayoun, Mullins, Noble (Bellion 61), Etherington, Harewood, Zamora (Aliadiere 76).

Subs Not Used: Newton, Hislop.

Booked: Noble, Konchesky, Repka, Ferdinand, Harewood, Carroll.

Goals: Zamora 45, Harewood 63.

Att: 20,370

Ref: M Riley (W Yorkshire).