Ashton's England class does for Pilgrims

Ian Holloway today hailed the return of England’s potential goalscoring saviour, before admitting he could have done without seeing the evidence of Dean Ashton’s red-hot return first hand.

Holloway’s plucky Plymouth side were just two minutes of stoppage-time away from taking West Ham to extra-time in their Carling Cup third-round encounter at Upton Park when Ashton struck.

The 23-year-old striker peeled away from his markers and met Kyel Reid’s cross with a superb volley to take his tally to three goals in three games since recovering from injury.

Ashton, who broke his ankle last August while training with the England squad and missed all of last season as a result, has been catapulted back into the nation’s consciousness following injuries to Michael Owen and Emile Heskey.

On this form, Ashton will be hard to ignore when Steve McClaren names his squad for the next round of Euro 2008 qualifiers next month.

“From a personal point of view, given we haven’t got what we wanted here - which was to win – then it’s great to see Ashton back,” said Holloway.

“I’m an England supporter, and it’s great to see him fit again. We all know what a long, hard road it is to get fit after something like that – so it’s great to see your good players fit and scoring.

“We want our good players playing well – although I could have knocked him out when he did that.”

West Ham manager Alan Curbishley was just relieved to see the front man bury his late chance to avoid a gruelling period of extra-time before Saturday’s Barclays Premier League derby against Arsenal.

“Dean got stronger as the game went on – and I was thinking that if we do get a chance, I hope it falls to him,” he said.

“I’m not thinking about England at the moment; I’m just happy he’s playing for West Ham again.

“I asked him about this game, and he said he wanted to play. It was a tough game for everyone out there, but he came through it.”

The Hammers were made to work hard for their first appearance in the fourth round in seven seasons – although in truth Plymouth rarely looked like adding their names to the likes of Northampton and Chesterfield, recent lower-division conquerors of the brittle east Londoners.

Argyle gave the West Ham rearguard one or two sticky moments – with Peter Halmosi and Akos Buzsaky going close – but Ashton, Lee Bowyer and Luis Boa Morte should have had the tie dead and buried long before the late heroics.

“We always knew this was going to be a difficult game,” added Curbishley.

“Plymouth are well-organised and they have a settled side – and they made it very difficult for us.

“They’ll be upset that they’ve got done in the last minute – but that’s cup football. This is a competition that a Premiership side will probably win, and a club like ours has to give it our best shot. We just hope we’ll get a decent draw.”