Ricketts robs Roeder of respite from sinking feeling

West Ham United 1 Bolton Wanderers 1

There are some things you are guaranteed at Christmas, such as too much food, presents you cannot find a use for and a big hole in your bank balance. Yet at least soon after comes the promise of New Year and the thought of starting with a clean slate.

Sadly for Glenn Roeder, however, Christmas this year would seem to guarantee one other thing – relegation and no hope of better times ahead. It has become the statistic in the Premiership that the team bottom on Christmas Day is always relegated the following spring but, now the West Ham manager is faced with that damning statistic, he is going to use it to gee up his players.

"What a great motivation [the statistic] for our players to prove everyone wrong," Roeder said. "We've got our own game-plan for survival. We're disappointed we didn't win but we've got 19 games to go and we're confident we can be out of the bottom three by May."

West Ham started the day bottom of the table and behind Bolton by a point. Relegation six-pointers do not usually come so early in the season but this was most certainly one of those. Having taken the lead through Ian Pearce's early well-taken goal, the Hammers had every opportunity to give themselves three points and condemn Sam Allardyce's side to the task of defying 10 years of Premiership history.

But when you have not won at home all season, hanging on to a one-goal lead is never the easiest of things. Sure enough Michael Ricketts, onside by millimetres from Jay-Jay Okocha's lob over the defence, was on hand to slip the equaliser by David James from only a few yards out with three-quarters of the game gone.

Roeder was adamant that the officials had erred in allowing Ricketts' goal and, while television proved the assistant referee right, it was so close that the man with the flag cannot have known he was correct, it can only have been an educated guess. More to the point, he was playing to the spirit of the law which gives the benefit of the doubt to the attackers. West Ham were playing a dangerous game by relying on the offside trap inside their own penalty area when Ricketts scored.

Deep down, Roeder surely knows this. He was, however, prepared to admit that his attack is lightweight at the moment. Pearce took his goal well from Defoe's faint flick but relying on a centre-back to carry your attack is not what you need when you are fighting relegation. Trevor Sinclair then missed with a header from six yards out when unmarked to remind Roeder of what he is lacking.

Roeder has been unlucky to lose Paolo Di Canio to injury, while Frédéric Kanouté's reputation, deserved or not, as a leader of the line grows with each passing week. The Frenchman, out with a groin injury for three months, should be back in the squad on Boxing Day.

Meanwhile, Allardyce seemed to think he was off the hook on Saturday. Having clawed their way back and avoided the dreaded bottom spot at the Christmas Day table, the Bolton manager clearly forgot there are two other relegation positions, and that his side fills one of them. He said: "Everybody knows the situation and what being bottom at Christmas means. We feel a lot better now and maybe this point is a lot more important than any other time. It heaps a lot more pressure on West Ham and takes a little bit off us."

Goals: Pearce (17) 1-0; Ricketts (64) 1-1.

West Ham United (4-4-2): James 6; Winterburn 6, Repka 5, Dailly 5, Schemmel 6; Cole 6, Carrick 6, Lomas 6, Sinclair 5; Pearce 6 (Hutchison, 79), Defoe 5. Substitutes not used: Bywater (gk), Breen, Moncur, Johnson.

Bolton Wanderers (3-5-1-1): Jaaskelainen 6; Charlton 6, Bergsson 6, N'Gotty 5 (Whitlow, 5); Barness 5, Frandsen 7, Gardner 6, Nolan 6, Okocha 6; Djorkaeff 4 (Ricketts 6, 55); Pederson 5. Substitutes not used: Poole (gk), Facey, Tofting

Referee: S Bennett (Orpington) 6.

Bookings: Bolton: Whitlow.

Man of the match: Frandsen.

Attendance: 34,892.