Carlton Cole believes West Ham United are one positive result away from kick-starting their season.
Now in his fifth campaign in claret and blue, the England striker - called up for the UEFA EURO 2012 qualifiers this week with club-mate Matthew Upson - is now a senior figure in the dressing room at the age of 26.
After finishing the past two seasons as the club's leading scorer, Cole has endured a stuttering start to 2010/11, missing a penalty in the 3-1 home Barclays Premier League defeat by Bolton Wanderers and failing to score in four appearances in all competitions.
However, the No9 was in powerful form at Manchester United on Saturday, giving Red Devils captain Nemanja Vidic a testing afternoon before running himself into the ground in a lone-forward role.
While Cole worked his socks off, the Hammers ended their tea-time visit to Old Trafford with a third consecutive league defeat, and the forward knows he and his team-mates need to start picking up points sooner rather than later.
"We were a bit disappointed. Obviously we came up here to try and put a shift in but once they got their penalty [converted by Wayne Rooney to open the scoring] they started to play in the Man United way, dominating a bit more. That's the way life goes up here - it's very difficult to come up here and get a result.
"Of course [the three defeats] does affect confidence. I think once we get going we're a good team, but it's the trying to get going and getting the confidence up. The manager is here for that. We believe in the manager and we want to do our best for him - that's the main point."
With champions Chelsea next on the fixture list, Cole believes victory over his former club is just the fillip the Hammers need to rediscover their mojo.
"Getting any type of result from a top-four side will be like a double-whammy bonus for us - it would get confidence up, get us three points in the table, give us the belief back and obviously it's a win - so it's massive if we can get anything from these top clubs."
Saturday's reverse at Old Trafford stretched West Ham's winless run on their travels to 21 matches in league and cup. Cole, though, denied that unenviable record was playing on his mind.
"I don't even look at that. I don't even think about it. I go out there in every game to do my best for the team and I think once we get our first win - anywhere - we'll start to get our confidence and do well. I think that's the main priority for us right now."
Between now and the visit of Chelsea, the summer transfer window will slam shut on Tuesday evening.
While the club have already brought in six new players - Thomas Hitzlsperger, Pablo Barrera, Frederic Piquionne, Tal Ben Haim, Winston Reid and Victor Obinna - Cole said more new faces would be welcomed into the Hammers dressing room.
"I hope [we'll sign more players]. Obviously you want quality players. Hopefully the chairmen and the manager will find the players they want to bring in and it will leave us in good stead for the upcoming season. We want to be in a great position by Christmas. Obviously we're getting our harder games out of the way already and we want to start building. Any kind of acquisitions would be most welcome."