West Ham United 3 Middlesbrough 0

Cole Changes Hammers' Hearts by David Lacey

Goals change games and can sometimes change minds. By half-time, after a routine mix of the bright and the banal, West Ham United supporters had clearly got it in for Carlton Cole... The Guardian

Cole Comes In From Cold by Will Buckley

The sun was shining and the Hammers were at home for the first time since a 3-0 victory at Reading. T'were very heaven to be a cultured West Ham fan. The first half, however, was a purgatory that seemed to have no end... The Observer

Ashton On Target by James Wrigley

It would be wrong to put West Ham's apparent revival down to the return of the striker Dean Ashton, who missed the whole of his club's chaotic campaign last season with a broken ankle... The Independent

Ashton Brings House Down by Jim Foulerton

West Ham produced a first home win for their supporters that had at one point seemed highly improbable but which by the end was emphatic. Three goals inside 16 second-half minutes... Independent on Sunday

Ashton Gets Back On Target by John Aizlewood

Forty-five minutes in and a frankly soporific first half had come and gone with two enforced substitutions the main incidents of note. Another 45 minutes and an effervescent West Ham, helmed in midfield by the admirable Mark Noble and led from the front by the rejuvenated Dean Ashton, had crushed Middlesbrough, who were left to rue a plethora of missed chances and continuing confirmation that, like cheap wine and fresh milk, they are poor travellers... Sunday Times

Dean Ashton Raises The Roof by Alyson Rudd

Steve McClaren probably never imagined that he would curse the news that Emile Heskey is injured, but at the same time as England’s unlikely hero was nursing a fractured foot, an obvious replacement was proving a point at Upton Park... The Times

Eager Dean Ashton Back On Goal Trail by Andrew Warshaw

West Ham fans will be the first to admit that their team too often flatter to deceive and lack consistency. A second straight 3-0 win, propelling them into the top six, would tend to discount that but Alan Curbishley is taking nothing for granted... Sunday Telegraph

Dean Ashton Is Worth The Wait by Mark Ogden

He has assumed near mythical status in east London during a long injury absence, so waves of relief rolled around Upton Park as Dean Ashton completed West Ham's 16-minute, three-goal match-winning whirlwind against a shellshocked Middlesbrough... The Telegraph