Jack Collison is aiming to help West Ham United's reserve team secure the highest possible league finish this season as well as maintain his personal goals with the first team.
Kevin Keen's men are third in the southern section of the Barclays Premier Reserve League, two points behind second-placed Reading and a further five behind leaders Aston Villa. Collison is again set to captain the side tonight when Fulham arrive at Bishop's Stortford and will hope for a repeat of the 4-1 success against Birmingham City a week ago, when he scored the crucial equaliser before Bobby Zamora's second half hat-trick.
"Kevin (Keen) had told us before the game against Birmingham, that if we won, we could go second in the table," said Collison. "That's what we want to do, get as high as we can in the table and keep getting the results. We have set standards for ourselves, we have a good mix in the reserve team of senior pros who have the experience and younger lads looking to push their way into reckoning for the first team."
Last Tuesday's performance was the epitome of a game of two halves with West Ham United finding it tricky going before the break against a Birmingham team featuring several first-team performers. That all changed around after the interval. "In the first half against Birmingham, we knew that we could be better on the ball," explained the 19-year-old Collison. "Kevin gave us a little talk at half-time and we went out, Bobby scored some great goals and we won the game well."
Jack said seeing team-mate Zamora firing in the goals again was a welcome sight and he was also pleased to help out in the goalscoring stakes. "I think watching Bobby score that hat-trick was great for everyone connected with West Ham to see. He took the goals well and his quality showed. For me, yeah, it was nice to score and I look to do that as much as I can, but the important thing was the three points and a good performance."
Jack is also progressing well on the international stage, with another good outing for Wales Under-21s earlier this month in a 4-0 win in Malta, that also saw him make it two goals in three appearances for his country. If Wales continue their European Championship qualifying form for the 2009 finals, Collison could even find himself up against Mark Noble's England in the play-offs later this year.
"It was nice to get amongst the goals and I was pleased to be able put in a decent performance," said the young midfielder. "It might be interesting if we get to meet England. I am sure there will be some extra banter between Nobes and myself if that happens."