Alan Curbishley insists Dean Ashton is not the forgotten man of Upton Park - and may throw him into action against Tottenham on Sunday.The 24-year-old has experienced both the highs and the lows since his £7million transfer to West Ham from Norwich just over two years ago.

After scoring in the 2006 FA Cup final, the powerful striker then suffered a broken ankle on the eve of his full England debut which would keep him out for 15 months.

Ashton finally returned to action at the start of this campaign, only to then be forced back on to the sidelines by a knee injury that scuppered his hopes of an international call ahead of the Euro 2008 qualifiers in October.

After being in and out of the side since then, the former Crewe trainee has received some flak from the Upton Park faithful, despite being the Hammers' leading scorer with six goals.

Curbishley rejects any notion there was a rift with Ashton, who has found himself fine-tuning his match sharpness in the reserves during recent weeks but feels close to being back to his best.

"Dean played against Birmingham, but then we came into a batch of games where I wanted to bulk the midfield up, so we did not get overpowered," said Curbishley. "When you have been out a year, that is a long time.

"Deano has been through something similar to Michael Owen, although he has not had the same niggling injuries.

"They have got to get back in and get regular football, and that is Deano's complaint at the moment.

"But I have got to look after the team as well as individuals.

"If I decided to play just one down the middle, then I felt Carlton Cole was more suited to it.

"We will see - we have got 10 games left and will see what that brings."

Curbishley added: "It has been a long road back for him, and I have spoken to Dean about it. It has not been confrontational.

"He might not be happy about it, but he has accepted it.

"It has just been something which I thought was best for the team and I will not hesitate to change it again if it is not working.

"However, the one thing you cannot get away from is that he has got more goals than anybody else, and he has not played all the games.

"That tells me if we can produce some chances, then I would not mind him getting on the end of it.

"If I decide to play 4-4-2 and Deano is in there, then I have no worries about that."

West Ham have won just three times in 2008, and went down 4-0 for the second game in succession when they were well beaten at Anfield in midweek which prompted a team meeting and frank discussion of the current situation.

Curbishley knows his players have been below par in recent weeks, while his options have been limited by injuries to key men such as Craig Bellamy, Lee Bowyer and Scott Parker, the central midfielder who could return against Spurs.

"We have not quite got it right at the moment, and there is a bit of frustration about," said the West Ham boss.

"We have been missing big hitter players, and although I cannot praise the guys who have been playing, that is a fact."

Curbishley added: "One thing we pride ourselves on is that the players put their lot in, and that is what they had done for every game this year. But in the last two, they have not given themselves a chance.

"You can have failings in certain areas as individuals, but we were just not at the races against Liverpool, and that was the disappointing thing."

Defender Anton Ferdinand accepts the players have to shoulder their share of responsibility.

"For me personally there are no excuses. We weren't good enough in these last two games," he said. "We have got to get back to what we do

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