West Ham United slipped to a third defeat in four games as their sticky life in the Championship shows no signs of ending.

Second-half goals from Andri Gudjohnsen and Dapo Afolayan settled matters for Blackburn Rovers as Scott Parker's search for his first win as Hammers boss will stretch beyond the international break.

Joel Piroe pulled one back in the last 10 minutes but it was too little, too late as they slipped out of the play-off places.

West Ham had come from three down at Cardiff City to draw 3-3 on Wednesday night in Parker's first game since replacing Nuno Espirito Santo.

But they could not build on that second half revival as they were undone in east Lancashire despite the backing of 7,000 travelling supporters.

Captain Jarrod Bowen had come closest to scoring when he hit the bar early in the second half but just as the Hammers were cranking up the pressure, they fell behind.

The home side launched a devastating counter attack through Jayden Fevrier and his cross was headed home by Gudjohnsen for his 11th of the season and a sixth in his last five games for the Iceland striker.

And Tony Mowbray's side looked to have settled it when Afolayan fired past Mads Hermansen after West Ham had expected the game to be stopped with defender Max Kilman on the ground holding his head.

Piroe halved the deficit with his first goal for nine games but there was to be no rescue act this time with Tomas Soucek putting a late header straight at Balazs Toth as Rovers celebrated a fine scalp.

The win followed successive defeats as they moved to 13th, only two points behind their opponents, and was the perfect way to tune-up for their derby away to Burnley when the Championship resumes.

As an ex-Burnley boss, Parker was on hostile territory coming to Ewood Park, but he had won on all three previous visits as a manager on the way to promotions with Fulham, Bournemouth and then the Clarets.

Those were achieved in full campaigns whereas he has just over two thirds of the season to try and do it with the Hammers.

His opening night in charge of his old club was the perfect snapshot, booed off at half-time and cheered off at full-time as they came from three down to draw at Cardiff, at times offering a mix of the sublime and the ridiculous.

And it is coping with that melodrama that will be Parker's biggest challenge. At those other three promoted clubs, the microscope is not as intense as at the London Stadium and at that moment, West Ham are not rising to the challenge.

They had slightly the better of the first half, with only a Divine Mukasa effort testing Balazs Toth, but they had started the second in promising fashion with Konstantinos Mavropanos glancing a header just wide, Bowen hitting the post and Arne Engels also going close.

But the 23 goals they have conceded is comfortably the most of any of the top 10 sides in the Championship - and it is now 11 shipped in the last four games.

Parker's Burnley conceded only 16 goals across an entire campaign in winning promotion two seasons ago, and he will have to work hard to introduce that defensive solidity with the Hammers.

If the goals against column does not start to dry up, then an immediate return to the Premier League will fade into the distance.

Blackburn Rovers head coach Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"We all know how emotional football is and generally when you lose a game, people usually see the negative side of a performance or the work rate or whatever it is, but I've been pretty happy with this group of players since the day I walked in.

"They care about each other, they work hard for each other, so we're delighted today. That's a tough game. You can feel their quality, their power and strength.

"We scored at good times. We always carried a threat whilst we allowed them a fair bit of the ball. It's not wise to go and chase them and hunt down really good football teams who can pick the right pass so we were pretty disciplined.

"After the back of the results, the work rate of the team, the endeavour and the commitment in such a big game, it was positive for us. Our lads rose to the challenge against a very good team."

West Ham United head coach Scott Parker told BBC Radio London:

"It's very disappointing. We dominated first half without creating too much and we suffocated Blackburn for large parts.

"Second half, we came out really sharp and really bright but we didn't manage to score and their first goal gave us a bit of a hill to climb.

"We proved in the week we can do that but we weren't clinical enough in our moments. We probed really and then the second goal is obviously a foul, but we gave ourselves a mountain to climb."