Blackburn Rovers' poor form in the league continued with a 1-0 defeat to West Ham United in their English Premier League clash on Sunday.

Dean Ashton scored the only goal of the match with a close range tapping in the second half to ensure that manager Alan Curbishley completed his first year at the club with an impressive away victory that lifts the club to 10th in the league table.

Blackburn dominated the opening minutes of the match and came very close to taking the lead when Lucas Neill's error saw David Dunn smash the ball towards the target from 25-yards out but was only able to hit the cross bar.

Tugay came close to breaking the deadlock with a trademark long range effort but saw his shot curl inches wide of the target. Both the teams were finding it difficult to create any real chances and were limited to long range efforts.

However things began to improve for West Ham following the introduction of Ashton at the start of the second half and the move paid instant dividends when George McCartney crossed the ball to the 24-year old who made no mistake in converting the chance from just six yards out.

The hosts pressed forward in search of an equalizer with Christopher Samba, Andre Ooijer and Tugay all forcing Robert Green to pull off good saves but were unable to hit the target, leaving West ham with their fourth away victory this season.