A powerful, strong striker, Dean Ashton's importance to West Ham United was underlined by the five-year contract he signed in June 2008 - just four days after he had finally made his senior England debut.

The striker joined West Ham United from Norwich City in January 2006 in a then club record £7.25m deal and has overcome injury setbacks to establish himself as one of the country's leading young forwards. Ashton originally signed for Crewe Alexandra as a youngster and, under the watchful eye of Dario Gradi, progressed through the ranks to make his league debut at Gillingham in October 2000 before going on score eight goals in 21 appearances.

Having established himself, Ashton was signed as a professional in February 2001 and his nine goals helped them to runners-up spot and a return to the Championship in 2002/03. Ashton really hit the headlines in 2003/04 with a runaway 19 goals in 44 league appearances - and 20 in all competitions - to head the Gresty Road scoring charts as the Railwaymen held their own in the second tier.

Having previously played for England at Under-19 level, his goal-scoring prowess had not gone unnoticed and he stepped up to the Under-21 side, where he struck on both of his appearances against the Netherlands and Sweden during spring 2004.

By January 2005, Ashton had already notched another 19 goals and that prompted Norwich City to swoop and make him Carrow Road's record £3m signing. Boasting a track record of 74 goals in 177 outings for Crewe, he was immediately handed his Canaries debut on 15 January 2005 in a 3-0 defeat at Villa Park. It did not take him long to score his first Premiership goal with it coming in his next game against Middlesbrough as he went on to end the campaign with seven goals from 16 games and finish the season as Norwich's joint top-scorer.

Unfortunately, that late burst could not save the Canaries from relegation and after hitting another ten goals in 28 Championship outings at Carrow Road, he was given a ticket back to the Premiership by Alan Pardew in January 2006. Ashton made his West Ham debut as a substitute in the epic 3-2 win at Arsenal - the Gunners' last-ever defeat at Highbury - and went on to score three goals in eleven league outings.

But it was in the FA Cup where he made most impact, netting twice at Manchester City in the quarter-finals and also in the classic 125th final against Liverpool. Not surprisingly, his rich vein of form brought him to the notice of Steve McClaren who named him in his first squad for England's friendly against Greece. With Ashton widely tipped to win his first full cap, disaster struck in training when he broke his ankle.

That cruel injury ruled him out of the entire 2006/07 campaign but after treading the lonely road back to full fitness, Ashton gave Alan Curbishley a welcome boost, when he made a welcome comeback to first-team action in August 2007. England attention came his way again in October after a bright start to the season only for a knee ligament injury to rule him out of contention to face Estonia and Russia.

He came back even more determined though and finished the 2007/08 campaign in prolific fashion. Five goals in his last eight games of the campaign demonstrated that - not least an incredible overhead kick at Old Trafford in an otherwise disappointing 4-1 defeat. The season finished with that England call, and it was a certainly a case of third time lucky. After being an unused substitute in the 2-0 home win against the United States, Ashton, still only 24 at the time, played the first 45 minutes of the 3-0 win away to Trinidad and Tobago.