GLENN Roeder was looking up and down the land today - from Ewood to Highbury, Southampton to Middlesbrough - in a desperate search for an escape route.

The West Ham boss, who could lose his job if they are relegated, is defiantly and understandably refusing to concede that his Premiership dream is over.

But he knows he cannot rely solely on his own players to save their skins.

"It's not over," Roeder insisted after Saturday's 1-0 defeat at the Reebok in what many believe to have been the result which will ultimately decide who follows already relegated Sunderland and West Brom in the drop to the Nationwide League.

"We are looking to other teams to bring Bolton back into it and we need to win games."

Roeder looked back in dismay on the turn of events that led to Jay-Jay Okocha's decisive 38th minute wonder goal.

Within seconds of Gudni Bergsson and Ivan Campo blocking goalbound shots from Jermain Defoe and Edouard Cisse, the Nigerian World Cup star raced from deep in his own half, leaving Joe Cole in his wake and firing an unstoppable 20-yard shot past David James.

"It was good defending by the Bolton defenders before the ball broke out to Okocha," Roeder acknowledged, "but he ran a long way, across the half way line, and we backed off too far.

"It was certainly an excellent strike but from our point of view we dived in at the halfway line and missed a tackle and then backed off too far to allow him to have a strike from about 20 metres without closing him down.

"Losing was a big blow because I felt we took the game as much as we could to Bolton. There were few chances in the whole game but we probably had the best in the second half when the ball broke to young Defoe."