WEST HAM v MILLWALL - nPOWER CHAMPIONSHIP - 04/02/2012 - PICTURE BY STEVE BACON

Hammers striker looking forward to playing with new recruits

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

Hammers striker Carlton Cole hailed West Ham’s win against arch-rivals Millwall as the perfect example of why the team are top of the league.

Sam Allardyce’s side had to endure the early dismissal of captain Kevin Nolan, but having played with 10 men for the best part of 90 minutes, West Ham came away with a vital victory to send them four points clear at the Championship 
summit.

“The fact that we went down to 10 men early on and still came out with a victory shows the spirit of the team,” said Cole.

“The manager didn’t panic, he didn’t make any decisions that would lose us the game and that’s the type of manager he is, he sticks to his guns and knows what sort of player can do what and uses the players properly.

“We are not top by accident, we are there because we have grafted and because of the endeavour within the team.”

Playing as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation is hard enough when you have a full complement of players, but when your team are down to 10 men, that task becomes even more 
difficult.

However, it was a challenge that Cole thrived on, often making himself a nuisance for both of Millwall’s centre-backs.

“Everyone has to stand up and be counted when you only have 10 men,” he said.

“When you put in a shift against a team with more players you are sometimes harder to play against and everyone is doing everyone else’s hard work too and you are all grafting, so you become a more resilient team, and we showed that.”

Cole opened the scoring for the Hammers, and the England international was pleased to end his 2012 goal drought with his header at the end of the first half.

“It is what I expect of myself,” he said.

“Sometimes I can be criticised for not getting into those positions and scoring more, but I did it and it was an important goal at a difficult time of the game.”

The Hammers signed three attacking players on the last day of the January transfer window in Ricardo Vaz Te, Nicky Maynard and Ravel Morrison, but Cole is confident that he can keep his position in West Ham’s starting line-up.

“I would say that those players are not my position,” he said.

“I am the number nine, they are more wingers and number 10s, so all I have to do is try to create goals and be strong up there and be that safety pin up front to hold the defence back.

“Obviously, I know that I can score goals, that is not a big problem for me, it is just getting around the goalscoring opportunities and there hasn’t been a lot coming my way during the last two or three weeks.

“I haven’t been in the positions to score and that is what I need to start doing.

“Hopefully the new signings will give me more service. And the more service the better for the number nine.”