Calum Davenport

Date of Birth : 1st January, 1983 Place of Birth :Bedford Signed : January 2007 (Spurs) Position : Centre-Half Height : 6.4 Weight : 14.0 Appearances: 12 (1) Goals : 1 International Appearances : 0

KB: KUMB; HM Hammers Mad; ST Sunday Times; SE Sunday Express; SM Sunday Mirror; OB Observer;
DM Daily Mirror; GU Guardian; TM Times; HD Hammers Diary; SK Sky; DE Daily Express BC BBC

The Sunday Times: It has to be said that West Ham’s defence hardly looked concrete, even though it was not so prone to give second chances as was Blackburn’s central rearguard pairing. But up front it was one of West Ham’s centre-backs, in the shape of Calum Davenport, who forcefully headed in a left-wing corner by Faubert after just 12 minutes to give the home side the lead.

Daily Telegraph: Davenport would almost certainly be plying his trade for Watford in the Championship by now were it not for a collision with team-mate Darius Henderson while on loan at Vicarage Road in January. The fractured vertebrae Davenport suffered very nearly paralysed him, but he has fought his way back to fitness and was rewarded with a place in West Ham’s season opener against Wigan after Ferdinand picked up an injury. With Ferdinand now permanently out of the way – and James Collins and Danny Gabbidon injured – the coast is clear for Davenport to make his mark on the Premier League, something that many predicted he would do back when Tottenham signed him from Coventry as a 21-year-old in 2004. “Sometimes a little bit of luck comes your way,” Davenport conceded without a hint of irony after his towering header from Julien Faubert’s corner set West Ham on their way to a 4-1 win over Blackburn and their best Premier League start for nine years. Is his good fortune all the sweeter considering his January injury scare? “Definitely. It was touch and go for a while. The specialist told me that another two kilogrammes of weight on my neck and I would have been in a wheelchair. I lost the feeling in my right hand and my right leg for a while. It was a dark time and other people wrote me off – I could have quiet easily thrown the towel in. “But everybody here has been unbelievable to me, and hopefully I can repay them.” (Tom Cary)

Hammer's Diary: My man of the match was Calum Davenport, and not just because of his goal. He was mammoth at the back and could have had another goal too.

KUMB: With 11 minutes gone City forced a couple of corners the second of which caused a bit of chaos. The ball eventually went a good two feet over for what would have been a goal kick had Webb spotted it. He didn’t and the ball came out to Ireland whose shot was nodded away by Davenport. The first time shot from Ben-Haim came off Davenport’s thigh and flicked onto the bar. Corluka played the ball back into the box where Davenport was flattened by Richards, a foul that left the defender requiring lengthy treatment. The home support – well the few that had turned up anyway stared to aim a chant suggesting that Davenport was a soft southern b*stard, something that had a nice sense of irony about it given the nature of Davenport’s injury, and I’m sure being called “soft” by the campest supporters in Europe – the crowd resembled a Village People fan convention- won’t be too much of a worry to the defender.

KUMB: Anton Ferdinand has revealed that he is looking forward to the challenge of retaining his first team spot next season.Ferdinand, who along with Matthew Upson, Calum Davenport, James Collins and Danny Gabbidon will be fighting for the two available central defensive spots revealed that he wasn't phased by the competition - and that he still saw his long-term future with the Hammers. "I definitely want to stay," he said. "I would not be at the club now if that was not the case. "I am happy to fight because if you're not playing well, you know you are not going to be playing the following week. (23rd July, 2007)