IT WAS another glorious chance for Jack Collison to open his account for the season. Carlton Cole battled and grappled the ball away from Ledley King and Sebastien Bassong before slipping the ball into the path of the Welsh international midfielder. Colli

IT WAS another glorious chance for Jack Collison to open his account for the season. Carlton Cole battled and grappled the ball away from Ledley King and Sebastien Bassong before slipping the ball into the path of the Welsh international midfielder.

Collison let fly with a goalbound shot, but it was expertly blocked by a Spurs defender and the chance was gone, writes DAVE EVANS.

At Wolves he came even closer, rounding keeper Wayne Hennessey before picking out Kevin Foley, the only man on the line in front of an empty net.

He is carving out chances though and the 20-year-old knows how important it is for him to start finding the net for the Hammers.

"It's something I want to add to my game," said Collison after the 2-1 defeat by Spurs. "In the last two weeks, I've managed to get into the right positions, but haven't had that finishing touch. So personally I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm going to keep working on that and hopefully I can weigh in with a few more goals for the team this year."

It has been quite a year for Collison. He broke into the first team on a regular basis last season and proceeded to make a midfield spot his own at Upton Park, as well as showing his worth in John Toshack's Welsh squad, where has six caps to his name.

West Ham is his top priority though and he felt that the team deserved to get something out of Sunday's clash with Spurs.

"We feel very hard done by," said Collison. "We played well in patches, created the chances and maybe on another day, we could have nicked the game or at least got a draw.

"Obviously it's a very disappointing result for us and the fans as well because it's a massive game, a local derby and it's one that we look forward to every year. So we're disappointed with the result, but I think we can take a lot of heart from the performance."

Collison has made three senior international appearances for Wales, but he finds himself in the under-21 squad for the next round of fixtures in September.

Demotion? Not a bit of it.

"No, the manager told us at the last game that because the seniors haven't got a game that Saturday, he's going to call up all the ones who can still play for the under-21s," explained the West Ham man.

"We've got Italy, it's a big qualifier for us and I'm really looking forward to the game.

"We've got a very exciting team with the likes of Aaron Ramsey, who scored for Arsenal on Saturday, and Simon Church is doing very well at the moment for Reading."

* MEANWHILE, it emerged after this interview was concluded that Jack's father Ian was killed in a road accident on the M25 on his way to the game on Sunday.

The midfielder only found out about his 46-year-old father's death some hours after the match against Spurs as police had difficulties tracing next of kin.

The tragedy makes Collison very unlikely to make the trip to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, although he played the full 120 minutes against Millwall on Tuesday night.

The Recorder send their sympathies to the player and his family.