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Dean Ashton, the West Ham United forward, has said that watching Michael Owen’s return to goalscoring form for club and country has reinstilled his belief that he will partner the Newcastle United forward for England.

This time last year the former Crewe Alexandra player was dealing with the realisation that he would miss the whole season. Some even suggested that the ankle injury he suffered during a training session while on England duty signalled the beginning of the end for Alan Pardew, the West Ham manager at the time, who was dismissed in November 2006 and succeeded by Alan Curbishley.

The club’s failure to replace Ashton forced them into a frantic battle to avoid relegation, when a top ten finish and success in one of the cup competitions, which included the Uefa Cup, was the least expected from a team who had only narrowly missed out on winning the FA Cup a season earlier.

Ashton is expected to take another step on his painstaking road to recovery when Middlesbrough visit Upton Park today and will do so after seeing Owen walk almost seamlessly back into top-level football after a year out with a serious knee injury.

“I found it strange that people were doubting him,” Ashton, 23, said. “He was always going to score goals at that level and there aren’t many players who can do that. One of my main goals long-term is to get myself back in the England squad and into Steve McClaren’s plans, but at the moment there is not much I can do other than work as hard as possible at West Ham and try to impress everybody.

“Steve liked me enough to pick me in that first squad, but that was a long time ago. A lot of things have happened since then and he has picked Emile Heskey. Of course, I think I could play Emile’s role, and it’s very important to have a player like that in the England team. I think it is underestimated how important his little touches are. It’s so important that everyone links up and that Michael Owen can get behind into the spaces.

“Without setting the world alight, Emile put in a hell of a performance which, from a striking point of view, was very significant.”