Cole determined to Hammer home a point

CARLTON COLE is determined to prove he can be a top-class striker for West Ham after falling foul of the Roman Abramovich regime at Chelsea.

The former England U-21 player was forced to sever ties with Stamford Bridge after being squeezed out of the picture by the sheer number of expensive foreign imports.

If it was not Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink ahead of him then it was Gianfranco Zola, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Mateja Kezman, Didier Drogba, Hernan Crespo or Andriy Shevchenko.

Cole could not stand another season kicking his heels on the bench or, worse still, outside of the match-day squad altogether, so he pressed hard for a move.

Cole said: “It has been like that for years now. Only Jody Morris, John Terry and myself have come through the youth system as homegrown English players. Robert Huth also came through and it was only us four who have gone on to make first team appearances.

“John Terry is the exception, he is the main man now, but there weren’t a lot of young players coming through Chelsea, though I think they are starting to invest in the youth academy now. I wanted to leave last summer. Jose Mourinho persuaded me to stay but I wanted to play more often.

Cole already feels very much at home in east London and made a fast start to his Upton Park career, coming off the bench to score the third in West Ham’s 3-1 win over Charlton.

He has left the billionaires’ club at Chelsea yet still faces some stiff competition from the likes of Marlon Harewood, Bobby Zamora, Teddy Sheringham and, when he is fit, Dean Ashton.

But Cole has a more realistic chance of making his mark at West Ham and he is confident the move will be a far greater success than his loan spells with Wolves, Charlton and Aston Villa.

Pardew turned to Cole to increase his options up front as West Ham head into a UEFA Cup season.

Jonathan Spector has been included in the squad tonight. Spector is fully recovered from the shoulder injury that ruled him out of the United States’ World Cup campaign.

Watford lost 2-1 at Everton on Saturday, having found themselves the victims of two very debatable penalty decisions. After a strong appeal in the Everton box had been turned down, the Hornets were appalled when referee Peter Walton ruled Chris Powell had handled when the ball hit his head.

Mikel Arteta netted from the spot to wrap up the points, with Damien Francis’ late strike just a consolation, but manager Adrian Boothroyd made it clear he did not intend to let the official shoulder all the blame.

He said: “No-one is happy with the result but there were reasons for it, not just bad refereeing decisions. We created enough chances to have won the game comfortably.”