West Ham V Blackburn - Head-to-head

Christian Dailly Martin Taylor APPEARANCESMinutes on pitch2115 805 GOAL ATTEMPTSGoals0 0 DEFENDINGBlocks28 11 Headed Clearances171 73 Other Clearances84 28 Interceptions13 3 Tackles Won40 15 PASSINGPassing Accuracy %77% 74% DISCIPLINEFouls45 11 Yellow Cards3 0 Red Cards0 0 OPTA INDEX SCORE751 775 First Goalscorer Odds50/1 50/1 Secure, tax-free online betting with www.surreySPORTS.co.uk Christian Dailly Martin Taylor

Christian Dailly will be eager to impress on Saturday when Blackburn Rovers visit the recently refurbished Upton Park, in this crucial FA Barclaycard Premiership encounter between two teams at the wrong end of the table.

Dailly joined the Hammers from Blackburn just over a year ago for £1.75 million after claiming that he was not given a fair crack of the whip at Ewood Park and Rovers manager Graeme Souness was desperate to offload him.

Dailly said at the time: "I think when Graeme Souness came in, it was always the case that I was going to be one of those he wanted to get off the wage bill. But that made me train twice as hard so that if ever I was called upon I would be ready".

So the man whose 244 clearances this season are the most at Upton Park will want to prove to the Rovers hierarchy that he is a defender of the highest quality.

And also to get revenge for the 7-1 mauling that the Hammers suffered in Lancashire in October, when Dailly was replaced at half time in Glenn Roeder's most disappointing afternoon as West Ham manager to date.

Premium bookmakers surreySPORTS offer 7/1 on Dailly managing to keep the likes of Andy Cole and Matt Jansen quiet in a 2-0 home win, and moving the east Londoners six points clear of Rovers in the Premiership table.

One man who benefited from Dailly's departure from Ewood Park was young centre-half Martin Taylor, who got his chance in the Rovers line-up immediately following the Scot's move.

Taylor has acquitted himself well and is comfortable in possession although he did inadvertently direct the ball into the path of Dennis Bergkamp for Arsenal's first goal against Rovers in midweek.

His performances at the tail-end of the last season were rewarded with an England Under-21 cap against Mexico. His recent displays have been encouraging as the team have qualified for the final of the Worthington Cup and Taylor is currently trying to cement a place in the starting line-up.

However his tackle success rate of 67% is somewhat below that of Dailly's who has managed to prevent his opponents from progressing in 86% of his challenges. And only two men in the Premiership have made more last man saving tackles than Dailly, one of them being Rovers defender Craig Short.

Both Taylor and Dailly are unlikely to grab the headlines on Sunday morning but the defensive pair are sure to have played their part in a lively open encounter at the Academy of Football this weekend.

Ben Romaner