Blackburn paid the price for a lethargic performance as they were held at home 1-1 by lowly Fulham.

The visitors had lost their last three away games without scoring and are firmly anchored in the bottom three but Rovers failed to capture all the points putting their own European ambitions at risk.

A dreary first half came alive within Rovers making two substitutions early in the second period.

One of these subs Jason Roberts flung over a cross and Mortem Gamst Pedersen powerfully headed home. The Norwegian had failed to score in the Premiership for twelve months until last week and he has now scored in successive games.

The Fulham players where convinced that Pedersen had committed a foul in the build up to the goal but referee Mike Riley waved aside their protests.

Roberts then had a couple of other opportunities to seal the game as his muscular presence unsettled the Cottagers rearguard.

Justice of sorts was done with two minutes remaining when Christopher Samba was harshly penalised for dangerous play when stretching out his long legs in tangling with Eddie Johnson.

Jimmy Bullard curled a delightful free kick into the top corner from 25 yards to give Fulham a valuable point in their fight to avoid the drop.

Blackburn meanwhile remain unbeaten in the League at home this season but boss Mark Hughes will look on this as two points dropped as a 5th place finish in the Premiership looks the minimum required for European qualification.

"I can't understand why they are unhappy with our goal. Pedersen was clearly impeded by their player," claimed Hughes.

"Morten just freed himself from the lad holding him and scored. For that he should be given credit."

Hughes was magnanimous about Fulham's equaliser but was unhappy that Samba's challenge was penalised.

"It was a great free kick. We know the quality Bullard has from those situations and he took it well.

"There's not a lot you can do if the technique is right.

"If you watch Chrissy Samba regularly you'll know he often clears balls in that fashion; the ball goes over his shoulder and he clears the ball with his long legs.

"We were a little bit flat in the first half with no real tempo in the game. Fulham came with a game plan to get bodies behind the ball and frustrate us, and to be fair they did it very well.

"Second half was more open once we made a couple of changes but once we took the lead we should have been more professional and killed the game to see out time, instead we kept chasing for the second.

"Overall though this was an opportunity lost."