Graphic: Tactical analysis by Bill Edgar

Lee Bowyer for England? There may have been a time when the West Ham United midfield player was a contender for a place in the national squad, but with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and Owen Hargreaves ahead of him in the pecking order, a call-up is extremely unlikely.

And yet the idea is not as crazy as it sounds. Bowyer is West Ham’s leading scorer in the league and his two goals on Saturday helped a team who are missing 13 players to climb into the top half of the table. He is in the kind of form that persuaded Leeds United to pay Charlton Athletic £2.8 million for his services in 1996.

But an England call-up? Even Bowyer thinks that is a dream too far. “I don’t think I will ever get called up again,” he said. “I scored 17 goals in one season and I didn’t get called up, so why would I get called up now?”

There is no bitterness in that statement, just an acceptance that things have changed. For Bowyer, life has moved on and this season is all about redemption: for a season of failings last year, for a poor first spell at Upton Park in 2003 and for a player who has much in his past that needs redeeming.

“My most important thing, especially with the disappointment of last season, is I just want to do well for West Ham,” Bowyer said, “and prove to everyone that I am better than what they’d seen the first time around.That’s why I came back a second time. I just want to play for the club. It’s the club I love and, hopefully, it will carry on.”

At the start of the season Bowyer was not first choice, with Mark Noble and Hayden Mullins in the queue ahead of him. But injuries have changed that and his contribution has not gone unnoticed.

“Lee is playing fantastically well at the moment,” Matthew Upson, the West Ham defender, said. “I think he feels that he has to prove people wrong. Maybe he has to prove himself more than others. Some people have already made their minds up about him, but I don’t think he can continue to be overlooked for long.”

As well as scoring twice, Bowyer was booked, his fifth yellow card of the season. But his one-match suspension coincides with a hernia operation that will keep him out for a month. With 13 players already missing because of injury, Alan Curbishley, the West Ham manager, will be hoping that no one else goes lame during the two-week international break.

For Derby, it is a time-out that could not come soon enough. Taking a thumping away to Arsenal and Liverpool is one thing, but to lose so heavily to West Ham’s reserves is something else. “It was embarrassing,” Tyrone Mears, the Derby right back, said. “The gaffer has told us all to take a long, hard look at ourselves.”

Derby County (451): S Bywater 6 – T Mears 4, D Moore 5, M Edworthy 4, A Griffin 4 – G Teale 5 (sub: S Howard, 52min 6), G Barnes 6, S Pearson 5, M Oakley 6, E Lewis 5 (sub: R Earnshaw, 58 5) – K Miller 6 (sub: C Fagan, 58 5). Substitutes not used: J McEveley, D Jones. Booked: Oakley, Fagan. Next: Chelsea (h).

West Ham United (442): R Green 7 – L Neill 7, D Gabbidon 7, M Upson 8, G McCartney (sub: J Paintsil, 14 7) – N Solano 8, J Spector 7, L Bowyer 8 (sub: J Collins, 72), M Etherington 8 – L Boa Morte 7, C Cole 7. Substitutes not used: R Wright, F Ljungberg, H Camara. Booked: Bowyer, Paintsil. Next: Tottentham Hotspur (h).

Referee M Clattenburg
Attendance 32,440