West Ham boss Alan Pardew looked a worried figure as his side were booed off
the pitch after being held to a demoralising goalless draw by struggling Derby
at Upton Park.
A point was enough for the Hammers to climb back above Millwall into fifth,
but two wins from their last six games is not play-off form and the chasing pack
are closing in.
Derby last won a league game at Upton Park in 1976 and did little to test
Pavel Srnicek on his home debut in goal.
But West Ham could not find a way through the visitors' stubborn resistence
despite a host of chances, and the visitors were the happier side with a point
which keeps alive their hopes of beating the drop.
Steve Lomas made his first start of the season for the home side after a
nightmare year plagued by injuries, and his tackle began a move which eventually
provided Jon Harley with a chance he wasted by shooting over the crossbar.
The Hammers were relieved to return to Upton Park after successive away
defeats to Sunderland, Millwall and Reading which dented their play-off hopes,
and Lomas was providing the bite they had missed.
But they were down to 10 men with Christian Dailly receiving treatment off the
field for a facial injury when Bobby Zamora brought the first save from Rams
goalkeeper Lee Grant with a testing shot from 10 yards out.
Dailly returned four minutes later to waste a chance in front of goal which
fell to him after Ian Taylor had cleared Zamora's shot from a Harley corner off
the goalline, and shortly afterwards Chris Cohen hit a volley narrowly past the
far post on his full debut.
West Ham were in the ascendancy and Connolly was inches wide with a
full-stretch effort from Michael Carrick's testing through-ball before Zamora
beat his marker to centre for Lomas, whose shot hit Connolly.
Cohen had another volley blocked and Connolly headed wide before the half-time
whistle blew, but there was an air of tension on the terraces with the home side
failing to make their dominance tell.
That only increased when Leon Osman, Derby's liveliest player, hit a shot off
Hayden Mullins which fell for Marcus Tudgay, who had time and space but blasted
just over the bar from the edge of the area.
West Ham brought on Brian Deane and Nigel Reo-Coker in response but their
introduction made little impact, and Taylor had a glorious chance to snatch the
opener for Derby - but instead conspired to put his free header from Osman's
free kick wide of the far post.
Deane then sent a free header over the crossbar and failed to connect when
Grant dropped a Lomas throw at his feet in stoppage-time.
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook