18/03/2000 West Ham 0 Chelsea 0 West Ham battled for a point against Chelsea's European heroes after Croat centre back Igor Stimac was sent off 20 minutes from the end of a rugged East-West derby. Stimac, harshly booked for his part in petulant dust-up just before the break when Chelsea's Tore's Andre Flo was also cautioned for his reaction to a John Moncur challenge, launched himself recklessly at Dennis Wise in the 70th minute and left referee Steve Dunn no option but to produce the red card to follow the second yellow. But West Ham regrouped again, brought off their substitute striker Paul Kitson in favour of a replacement centre back in Neil Ruddock and well deserved their share of the honours even though Flo had wasted two good chances to decorate Chelsea's unbeaten 13-match run with another victory. Chelsea made only two changes from the side that beat Feyenoord in midweek to clinch a place in the Champions' League quarter finals and seemed carried along by that success for most of the first half. But they had to survive an early scare when Paolo di Canio charged down Albert Ferrer's attempt to put the ball back in West Ham's goalmouth from the halfway line after a corner had been cleared. Hammers' Italian hero showed a clean pair of heels to two challengers in a brilliant run but after swerving past Leboeuf and into the penalty area his shot lacked sufficient power to really trouble de Goey. The patient probing of Wise and Gianfranco Zola kept the Hammers defence at full stretch for long spells and Moncur earned a booking for bad tackle on the Chelsea captain who was also clattered by Marc-Vivien Foe soon afterwards - without redress from referee Dunn. Unabashed, Chelsea kept at it and Forrest had to be alert to block Dan Petrescu's close-range stab after Scott Minto seemed to lose the flight of Zola's cross in the sun when she should have cleared comfortably. Another piece of magic by di Canio produced an amazing escape for Chelsea on the half-hour when a beautifully-judged through-pass put in Moncur, who took the ball past Leboeuf and saw his shot bounce off Ed de Goey for Marcel Desailly to clear. The Frenchman's effort travelled only as far as di Canio, though, and when the striker had another go at goal, the shot cannoned off the big Dutch goalkeeper again, struck the bar and came back down into his arms. Seven minutes later Dan Petrescu's pass opened up a wonderful opportunity for Flo at the other end but, after bursting between Stimac and Rio Ferdinand, he shot wide with only Forrest to beat. The let-off inspired West Ham to more urgency and they put Chelsea under pressure in the last few minutes of the first half, punctuated by an off-the-ball dust-up between Flo, who reacted to a typically spiky Moncur tackle, and Ferdinand and Stimac who also foolishly decided to get involved. The Norwegian and the Croat were both yellow-carded and although Stimac was hardly the worst offender he paid for it later. In any event, the acrimony at the end of the first half set the tone for the second and West Ham seemed to have more appetite for the battle. They should have made Chelsea pay but the unpredictable Paulo Wanchope and the persistent Trevor Sinclair both wasted half-chances before Wise was robbed by a last-ditch tackle from Minto when looking certain to score at the other end from Morris's knock-down. Stimac had to go 20 minutes from time, though, for his red-mist challenge on Wise - exchanging less-than-complimentary words with the Chelsea captain as he left the pitch - and the Hammers, who had scented victory, sending on Kitson for Wanchope, had to withdraw their substitute striker in favour of a replacement defender in Neil Ruddock. Flo had a chance to cash in on their confusion but put his header straight at Forrest after Ferrer had provided a pin-point cross that was tailor-made for the tall striker. But, if anything, West Ham looked the more likely winners in what remained of the game although the luckless Chris Sutton toe-ended a presentable chance wide in the closing minutes after substituting for Flo.