The Australian international joined the Hammers in January, snubbing an approach from Liverpool, after deciding to quit Blackburn after more than five years.

After making a delayed impact because of injuries the 29-year-old revelled in post-match celebrations following the controversial win at Rovers.

Neill said: "It is a long time since the boys have tasted victory. So it was a very happy dressing room at the end.

"Overall I thought we deserved it. The winning goal was obviously controversial, but the luck has been well and truly against us this season. So it was nice to be on the right side of it for once."

Bobby Zamora's late winner was allowed to stand despite the fact that team-mate Carlos Tevez appeared to inadvertently stop the ball crossing the line.

Neill was jeered and verbally abused throughout the match by his former Rovers fans and admitted: "It was strange going back to Blackburn. I spent five and a half years at the club and I thought the reception I got was quite disgusting, to be honest.

"For a player who committed himself for all of that time, never complained, never missed training, never missed games and gave everything I had, I was really shocked and quite disappointed.

"I still have a fantastic relationship with all the players, staff and management at Blackburn and they will be friends of mine for a long time, it's just unfortunate that the fans don't see it that way."

Now Neill believes that, with eight games left, West Ham can still escape relegation.

He told West Ham's official website www.whufc.com: "Of course survival is on. It has never been off for me.

"I've always believed it can be done. Every day I've come in to training saying that we've still got 27 points to play for. Now it's 24.

"We've got to believe. We believed against Tottenham and were two minutes away from getting the points. And against Blackburn we ground out a result and got the points we deserved.

"Next we face Middlesbrough at home - a big game. The crowd will be behind us and, if we win the momentum will hopefully carry on. We've just got to fight for our lives in every single one.

"With 35,000 West Ham fans backing us at Upton Park, and four or five thousand travelling with us to the away games, we have always got a chance."