Cole knows the score

Carlton Cole is in the form of his life but is more focused on helping West Ham United to start moving up the league standings.

The 25-year-old striker has scored eleven goals in his last 19 league outings dating back to last season and has hit four from seven top-flight matches this season including the 2-2 draw with Fulham last weekend. However, he is well aware those strikes have not coincided with victories. "I want to score goals. That is what everyone is asking of me and that's what I am trying to deliver," he said.

"I scored against Fulham and was pleased, but obviously want the team to win," added Cole, who is has been training hard with England as he hopes for his fifth cap this weekend away to Ukraine. "I will keep trying to score goals but am not fully satisfied because I have scored but we have not won the game. We have lost previous games when I scored, so at least we got a point against Fulham and stopped that."

Cole said there was a determination in the ranks to turn things around. "The boys know that. We can take a lot from the first half but we have to cut out the mistakes we made in the second half. That is what we will be working on. We will look at all the videos of the game, see where we did go wrong and look to improve from that.

"People always say when you are against ten men, you should go on and win easily, but those ten men have to work double hard and all credit to Fulham, they put up a good fight and got a penalty early in the second to get back into the game.

"We were then chasing the game and they got another goal. These things happen in football and we are glad to get a point out the game in the end, but it was definitely two points dropped as we wanted to win. We as a team are getting there. We maybe a bit naïve at the moment but we are working to improve on everything and not make the same mistakes."

Cole said the squad were united and that all would play their part in the games to come. "The team is looking to work on these things. There is no panic, we know how to get ourselves out of the situation we are in. We have some good senior pros who will help the younger players - we have got a young team and we have to keep going, which we will."

He also offered praise for the manager for helping to bring the best out of his game. "He has been brilliant for me. He knows me well from me playing with him at Chelsea and Steve Clarke was my youth team manager at Chelsea and helped me to push me up to the first team. I owe a lot to those guys and need to keep on going."