LIKE the alcoholic whose first step to redemption is to admit his addiction, Sam Allardyce and his players stood up on Sunday night and admitted their failings.

They confessed not only to failing to perform but of failing to entertain.

It was probably the most redeeming feature of the day that no one, neither manager nor player, was under any illusions.

They had taken a point and managed one of the precious clean sheets they seem to treasure so passionately, but they refused to let that mask their frustration.

"It was a disappointing performance, a disappointing game," Gary Speed said in an honest assessment of a derby duel that was more cold leftovers than Lancashire hotpot.

"It wasn't a great game to play in and I'm sure it wasn't a great game to watch.

"But maybe a year ago we might have lost it, the way we played. So, if you can take anything out of the game, it's the clean sheet and knowing that you've played poorly and still not lost.

"But we've got to improve. Hopefully, we can put this down as a bad day and get back to some good football."

It takes two to tango, of course, and Mark Hughes and his Rovers (or should they be renamed Blackburn Terriers?) must be credited for not only stifling Wanderers as an attacking force but also testing them defensively. But these are the examinations that must be passed if a team is to stay ahead of the Premiership game.

In fairness, it is a measure of how far Wanderers have come in a short time that they command the respect of opponents who will come to the Reebok with the sole purpose of preventing them from imposing their superiority.

And it is encouraging to know that when they are not at their best and they were far from that yesterday they are still capable of taking a point.

But, if they are to continue their remarkable progress as a Premiership force, their stars must shine much brighter.

For in a game that was crying out for someone to produce something special, their only real hope of a winner was from a set-piece, of which there were precious few, or from a mistake by a Blackburn defender, of which there was none.

Speed, who was typically tireless in his efforts in a midfield overcrowded by virtue of both teams cancelling each other out with the same formation the critics are currently using as a stick with which to beat Sven Goran Eriksson, says Wanderers must rise to the challenge.

Having played under Mark Hughes when he was manager of the Welsh national side, Speed was not surprised to see Blackburn organised and committed.

"They did well and in some respects that was a compliment to us," he added. "They must have watched us against Newcastle and seen us play so well that Newcastle just couldn't get near us. I know Mark and I know what he's about. They came here to stop us playing and they managed to do that.

"Yes, it's a mark of respect to us, after what we did last season, that people are going to come here and try not to get beat.

"But it's up to us to produce more quality, especially in the final third. When we did get into those areas the quality wasn't good enough, and I'm not just saying that about the forwards, but everyone.

"When we get into the better areas, we need to produce more.

"It didn't make a very good spectacle but give them credit for that."

A spectacle? There was more entertainment at the Oval when the teams were off for bad light!

In a match littered with 40 fouls mostly niggling little ankle taps and shirt tugs rather than bone-crunching challenges it took 66 minutes before either side managed to get a shot or header on target. That came courtesy of a Jay Jay Okocha free kick that stretched Rovers keeper, Brad Friedel, for the only time in the game.

Okocha was one of the more frustrated of the unhappy Wanderers. Supporters looked to their talisman, along with Stelios and El-Hadji Diouf, to produce something special. But it just didn't happen for the skipper, who was deprived of the time and space to get into any sort of rhythm, nor for anyone else for that matter.

And, although it might fly in the face of those Bolton fans, who booed him from first whistle to last, Robbie Savage had a lot to do with that.

Public Enemy Number One he may be, but the feisty Welshman was all over the place, flitting from one challenge to the next, creating flashpoint after flashpoint in fact, doing the job he is paid to do.

He got himself booked for dissent, correctly pointing out that Wanderers had been given the benefit of an incorrect line call, and that delighted the vast majority of the Reebok crowd. But he was otherwise effective and influential as Rovers claimed their first away point of the season and stretched their unbeaten run in this fixture to five games.

Wanderers might have won it, had Ivan Campo managed to hit the target with a first-half header from Speed's free kick, but they could have lost it in the second when they became careless and ragged under pressure, particularly after Hughes sent on new loan signing, David Bentley, the Arsenal starlet Allardyce tried to borrow last season.

The usually rock steady Bruno N'Gotty played himself into trouble, Tal Ben Haim caused panic where he usually spreads calm and Jussi Jaaskelainen had a dodgy spell when he did anything but exude confidence.

But he earned the point when he denied Steven Reid with an excellent save after the Irishman had caught Henrik Pedersen in possession.

It was, however, the only time Pedersen looked out of place at left-back, justifying Allardyce's decision to leave the fit-again Ricardo Gardner on the subs' bench.

Campo, who looked comfortable in the first half, became much more of a liability at right back, prompting the manager to switch him to midfield.

"I had to move him out of there because he could have cost us in the end with his anxiety," Allardyce said while lamenting his own team's attacking failings.

"I've seen us lose these games in the past, so it was a creditable clean sheet.

"But it's our responsibility to do better than we did, even against a team that was well disciplined and well organised and did a great job in closing us down.

"That's what caused the game to be scrappy. But what we needed was for someone to pop up with a little bit of genius.

"We've got that in the side but they got frustrated because they didn't get enough of the ball and didn't quite produce it.