EL-Hadji Diouf is still aiming high this season – after claiming the last couple of weeks have installed belief that Blackburn Rovers can qualify for Europe.

The Senegalese midfielder helped Rovers earn their first point at Upton Park for almost a decade with an impressive goalless draw against West Ham and then declared ‘The Europa League is not beyond us’.

Saturday’s point should have been even better, after a combination of another refereeing howler and missed chances left Rovers rueing what might have been, but it did leave them in the top half of the Premier League for the first time this campaign.

Referee Peter Walton failed to spot Mark Noble’s blatant handball on the line to deny Gael Givet a deserved winner, but Rovers’ dominant display has filled Sam Allardyce’s men with confidence.

Diouf knows their relegation fears are still far from banished, currently sitting just eight points clear of the relegation zone, but believes eighth placed Birmingham are now also in their sights.

He points to their brave Carling Cup semi final defeat at Aston Villa as the turning point to Rovers’ season – insisting the spirit and passion shown by his teammates proved to them all they are good enough to challenge the best.

He said: “If we continue like that we are going to stay in the Premier League, but why not go to the UEFA Cup next season?

“The gaffer has told us every day we have the team to play hard football, to go forward well and to believe in ourselves and to believe we can make the UEFA Cup.

"It is definitely a realistic aim. If we show the same ambition and desire like today and Aston Villa we will go the UEFA Cup next season.

“We are not too far from the top sides. We just need to believe in ourselves and we need the fans to continue to support us.

"We know that is not easy sometimes but we just say support us to the fans, we need them.

“The big point was the desire we showed against Aston Villa in the semi-final.

"After that game we knew we had a good team because it is not easy to go there to play and play like that.”

After a tight first half at Upton Park, Rovers dominated the next 45 minutes as West Ham were restricted to just one meaningful effort on goal – a 20-yard free-kick from Alessandro Diamanti.

The visitors, on the other hand, saw Morten Gamst Pedersen strike the bar before the break, before Jason Roberts and Martin Olsson missed chances, while referee Peter Walton failed to spot Mark Noble’s handball.

“We are so disappointed,” Diouf said. “We controlled the game, we had the chances and we should have clinched the win, but the draw is good for the confidence still.

“If we won it would have been a massive win but we knew it was not an easy game before the game, but we should have killed the game to not be struggling.

“We played well, we defended well but we should have won, we had the opportunity.”