A late Jimmy Bullard free kick gave Fulham a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Blackburn to boost their fight for Premier League survival.

Bullard curled an 89th-minute free kick into the top left of Brad Friedel's goal to give boss Roy Hodgson a vital point against his former club after Blackburn led from the hour mark through a controversial header by Morten Gamst Pedersen. Norway winger Pedersen nodded in Jason Roberts's right wing cross but, just before doing so, pulled back and tripped Canada defender Paul Stalteri to give himself a free header.

Fulham were furious, with Stalteri stunned at referee Mike Riley's failure to penalise Pedersen, who he also confronted after the final whistle. But Blackburn themselves felt aggrieved at the equaliser, which came from a free kick awarded after Christopher Samba was adjudged to have raised his foot too high when clearing from Eddie Johnson.

Bullard - who has missed most of the past two seasons with a career-threatening knee injury suffered soon after his arrival at Fulham - stepped up to the plate with a quite exceptional shot that left Friedel static.

Defeat would again have been harsh on Fulham, who overcame a sluggish start to prove more than a match for an off-colour Blackburn.

The Whites felt they had a good claim for a free kick which, if awarded, could have resulted in a 12th-minute red card for Zurab Khizanishvili when he pulled down the impressive Eddie Johnson on the edge of the box. The appeals were waved away by Riley, but the replays clearly showed the Georgia defender putting his arm over Johnson's shoulder and tugging back the front of his jersey.

The first half was a scrappy, disjointed affair, with the best chances falling to Khizanishvili - who could only send a free header straight at Kasey Keller after a David Bentley corner - and Leon Andreasen, returning from suspension following his sending-off against West Ham, who saw a drive from the edge of the box blocked for.

The second 45 minutes saw Blackburn come out with more winning intent - Steven Reid's deflected effort bouncing off the top of the bar and Pedersen's volley spinning just high and wide - while Fulham also looked more threatening, Johnson unlucky not to break the deadlock when his powerful run culminated in a rising shot that beat Friedel but crashed off the angle of post and bar.

The breaks rarely fall for teams struggling at the bottom, and almost immediately after Johnson's effort Rovers took the lead. Bentley showed good feet to slide sub Roberts free on the left and - while his cross was excellent - it would have been headed clear by Stalteri if Pedersen had not judo-felled him before heading into the roof of the net. Aaron Hughes was also culpable for failing to clear the centre - he was stood near post of Pedersen and seemed to let the ball over his head - but the referee missed the foul and his assistant was positioned on the wrong side of the pitch to see the former Tromso midfielder's rear assault on the Fulham right back.

Fulham were now angry, and should have levelled soon afterwards. Danny Murphy almost instantaneously saw a shot blocked by Samba after Khizanishvili's defensive header fell to him on the edge of the box, and Dempsey air-kicked the rebound when he really should have scored.

USA international Dempsey was then guilty of taking far too many touches when put in goalscoring positions, particularly after a Johnson-led charge saw Simon Davies's shot blocked into his path but - instead of shooting first time - he tried to control and cut the ball back, allowing the Blackburn defence to reorganise and clear.

Pedersen almost doubled Rovers' lead with a superb long-range free kick that sent Keller sprawling to his top left but went inches wide of the woodwork, but Fulham were still asking most of the questions, Paul Konchesky mimicking Dempsey when - with men over Blackburn on a counter attack - the former West Ham, Charlton and Tottenham left back was found free in the box but opted to move inside and lay the ball off to nobody in particular.

Keller then showed why he was preferred to the rested Antti Niemi with a quite superb one-on-one save from Roberts with five minutes left on the clock and the scene was set for Bullard to work the magic that fans of the Premier League had been denied for 18 months after his sickening injury against Newcastle in the summer of 2006.

Reda Maher / Eurosport