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If you'd told Craig Dawson a year ago that right now he'd be playing for the only team in the Europa League to have maintained a 100 per cent record, he would perhaps have been forgiven for thinking you were slightly mad.

Yet roll the club forward 12 months and that's exactly where the experienced defender finds himself.




Struggling to get into relegated Watford's first team at the time and pilloried by Hornets fans, the 31-year-old saw his career given a major boost when David Moyes brought him to West Ham as fourth-choice centre back.

Yet after impressing hugely when finally given his chance, Dawson has proved to be a majot cog in Moyes' well-oiled West Ham machine - and further enhanced his credentials by scoring the opening goal in Thursday 's 3-0 defeat of Genk.

Yet despite being in the latter stages of his career, the Rochdale-born defender continues to take everything in his stride - while admitting that he is thoroughly enjoying his football at present..

"We’re doing well at the moment," he told whufc.com following the win. “That’s a few clean sheets in a row for us [in Europe] so we’ll just keep going, working hard and see what happens.

“Clean sheets are important for the group and it’s great to be a part of that. There’s competitions for places, everyone’s working hard, and all you can do is perform when you get that opportunity.

“Confidence is high. It’s a good group of players. We’re going to stay grounded and keep working hard for each game. We’ve got a lot of games coming up, so we’ll need everyone ready."

Although he is very much second choice at the moment behind Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna, Dawson is clearly delighted to be part of what is rapidly becoming a very confident and dangerous West Ham team under Moyes.

Yet he insists he'll continue to strive to push for a place in the manager's first XI. "It’s disappointing when you’re not in the side, but I’ll just keep working hard on the training pitch and keep having nights like tonight.




"It was a good performance from everyone tonight,” Dawson told West Ham TV. “To come out of the game with goals for the centre-halves and a clean sheet, it’s been a good night.

“It was an important goal to go in 1-0 up [at the break] and give us some confidence. We know we’re not [always] going to be two or three goals up at half time so it was great focus from the lads to keep going to the last kick."

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