• Rovers hoped to pick up striker on a free transfer
• Tony Pulis wants £1.75m for out-of-favour Beattie

Blackburn Rovers have failed in an attempt to re-sign James Beattie after being told that Stoke City are looking to recoup a significant sum for the former England striker despite the manager Tony Pulis’s desire to move on a player he clashed with last season.

Blackburn had hoped that, with Stoke keen to get Beattie, one of their highest earners, off the wage bill, there might be a chance to pick up a player who started his career at Ewood Park on a free or for a nominal fee. However, Stoke have signalled that they would be looking for about £1.75m for Beattie, who cost them double that amount when he joined from Sheffield United in January 2009. Stoke also informed Blackburn that they would not consider loaning Beattie to one of their Premier League rivals.

Beattie clashed with Pulis at the Emirates Stadium in December, when the Stoke manager is alleged to have headbutted the forward following a disagreement over the club’s Christmas night out. The 32-year-old served a grievance procedure against Pulis but an investigation failed to find in his favour.

He made only one more appearance for Stoke after that episode and was left off the club’s pre-season trip to Austria along with Dave Kitson, another striker who is available for transfer this summer.

Blackburn RoversStoke CityTransfer windowStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk

As far as the Wolves supporters were concerned, it was an “I was there” moment. With nine minutes remaining, and just when the home team seemed certain to make it five games without a goal — and five in a row at home — Sylvan Ebanks-Blake nodded Stephen Ward’s cross beyond Paul Robinson and saw it bounce off the post and over the line.

The eruption around the ground was one of sheer relief, though despite the idiotic ground invasion at the end, Wolves are not yet safe. If Burnley win all three of their remaining games, and Wolves lose both of theirs, they may yet go down.

And while it would be unfair to suggest that the fact they probably will now stay up is down to the failings of others, their impotence in front of goal in the last three months inevitably takes some of the gloss off an otherwise praiseworthy season.

For that, surely, the manager, Mick McCarthy, has to take his share of the blame, for all that the Yorkshireman deserves credit for Wolves’ survival. Playing one up front, with one of a five-man midfield sweeping in front of the back four, is acceptable away from home, but in front of their own supporters it has led to a series of sterile and sometimes, as on this occasion, fruitless matches. Next season they will almost certainly have to offer more.

Inevitably, given the formations, the match developed as so many at Molineux have this season, with Wolves organised primarily to frustrate — or, as McCarthy would no doubt prefer, to be solid — and chances at either end at a premium.

It took almost 20 minutes for the first to arrive, when Rovers came within a post’s width of taking the lead in a manner that would have driven McCarthy up the wall. Nikola Kalinic was up against three Wolves defenders when Basturk swung in a cross from the left, but the Croatian forward got in front of George Elokobi and was unlucky to see his header come back off Marcus Hahnemann’s left-hand post, with the American goalkeeper well beaten.

It was 25 minutes before Wolves first threatened. Kevin Doyle’s cross was headed for a corner, which eventually resulted in David Jones shooting into the side-netting.

Three minutes later Rovers went ahead. Morten Gamst Pedersen’s corner to the far post badly misjudged by Hahnemann, and Ryan Nelsen, arriving late, kneed it into the empty net.

With his team yet to create an opportunity worthy of the name, McCarthy gave Doyle some support in the shape of Chris Iwelumo, but their only genuine chance of the half fell to Jody Craddock, who was coming in at the far post when Jones’s volleyed cross cleared the Blackburn defenders. The defender’s shot went well wide.

The second half was an improvement of sorts, as it had to be. Paul Robinson almost fumbled a simple save from Jones, and Craddock volleyed over from close range after Elokobi’s throw was flicked on by Iwelumo.

For Rovers Pedersen and Keith Andrews shot straight at Hahnemann, but just when the crowd had given up, McCarthy put on Ebanks-Blake, and the substitute obliged. Even then Rovers spurned three good opportunities to score a winner.

Premier LeagueWolverhampton WanderersBlackburn RoversRichard Raeguardian.co.uk

There was a time when numerous pundits predicted that England’s 2010 World Cup campaign would be constructed around David Dunn’s vision and creativity.

Those days are long gone and such opinions quietly forgotten. Should Dunn journey to South Africa this summer, it will be as a tourist rather than a member of Fabio Capello’s squad but, as Birmingham City discovered to their cost, the Blackburn Rovers midfielder is far from a spent force.

On an evening illuminated by two of the Premier League’s more mercurial talents, Dunn and Birmingham’s James McFadden, the former scored twice and had another effort disallowed, while the Scot also struck with a venomous free kick.

Dangerous as he was though the Birmingham forward could not quite do enough to prevent his suddenly plateau-ing side slipping to another defeat as Blackburn took a major stride toward banishing any lingering relegation fears.

Sam Allardyce is a little miffed with those Rovers fans who appeal in vain for him to configure his team in a reassuringly attack-minded 4-4-2 formation. “You get this 4-4-2 rubbish,” he snorted on the eve of this match. “But it is an antiquated system. Why should we play two up front? It doesn’t work in the Premier League anymore.”

And it only took five minutes before Dunn’s scoring burst from the home midfield quintet served to vindicate his manager’s case. When a long forward punt was controlled superbly on the chest by Nikola Kalinic – who did well to hold off Birmingham’s Roger Johnson – Dunn accelerated into the area before half-volleying Kalinic’s ball beyond Joe Hart with his left foot.

For a short spell after that Dunn’s old team looked distinctly wobbly but, gradually, McLeish’s players pulled themselves together. Indeed Jason Brown, deputising for the injured Paul Robinson in Blackburn’s goal, seemed under peril from a deceptively curving, slightly deflected McFadden strike but the understudy proved equal to the challenge, saving brilliantly.

McFadden’s clever movement saw Allardyce’s centre halves – Chris Samba and the 18-year-old Phil Jones – frequently pulled all over the place. Not about to be upstaged, however, Dunn continued to exert a similar effect on Birmingham’s defence. So much so that he started celebrating a second goal after another late dash into the box, followed by another half volley which went in off the underside of the bar. This time, though, his effort was disallowed for a foul in the build-up.

Furious with his team-mate Míchel Salgado for what he clearly regarded as the totally unnecessary tug responsible for seeing a fine finish chalked off, Dunn exchanged some harsh words and displayed hostile body language with Blackburn’s right back as the teams trooped off for half-time.

Altercation over, both protagonists reappeared for the second half, only for McFadden to steal some of Dunn’s limelight. When Birmingham won a free-kick just outside the area following Morten Gamst Pedersen’s foul on Johnson it seemed ideally positioned for delivery by the forward’s left foot. And a swipe of that boot from McFadden sent the ball arcing over Blackburn’s non-existent wall before dropping perfectly into the far bottom corner. Apparently transfixed, Brown did not move, remaining rooted to his line at the near post.

A gauntlet had been thrown down and, when El Hadji Diouf whipped in a corner, Dunn threw himself forward to head beyond Joe Hart from close range.

Premier LeagueBlackburn RoversBirmingham CityLouise Taylorguardian.co.uk