James Tomkins

Date of Birth : 29th March 1989 Place of Birth : Basildon Signed : July 2006 Position : Defender Height : 6.3 Weight : 11.5 Appearances : 19 (2) Goals : 1 International Appearances : 0

Sky Sports: The visitors took the lead against the run of play when Radoslav Kovac picked up the ball 35 yards out and blasted a long-range effort into the net as Everton stood off him. But the game was changed completely when Everton were awarded a penalty and West Ham reduced to 10-men on 38 minutes. As Tim Cahill burst into the penalty area, he was tripped by young centre-back James Tomkins. Phil Dowd pointed to the spot and showed Tomkins a red card. Louis Saha stepped up and coolly sent goalkeeper Robert Green the wrong way, slotting his shot into the bottom corner.

Hammers Mad: Despite the early deficit, Everton kept forcing the visitors back with Saha making a menace of himself and quick feet from the Frenchman released Tim Cahill inside the box before an outstretched leg from James Tomkins sent him tumbling. With referee Phil Dowd pointing straight to the spot, he then added insult to injury and reached for the red to give an unlucky Tomkins his marching orders.

The Sunday Times: Defeat ended West Ham’s hopes of claiming a place in the inaugural Europa League, which many of their fans would regard as a right result, seeing that the format seems to require participants to play hundreds of games just to reach the last 32. But they looked good for at least a point until 20-year-old centre-half Tomkins was sent off for bringing down Tim Cahill in the area just before half-time. Referee Phil Dowd will doubtless take a leaf from the book of Westminster’s right honourable members by claiming that he was only acting within the rules, but it seemed an offence against the spirit of the law to send off a talented youngster making his 16th start. Hammers manager Gianfranco Zola said the red card changed the game. “I thought it would maybe have been fairer to give a penalty and a yellow card. It is painful but something I have to accept. Failing to get into Europe does not take anything away from our season. I am very pleased and proud to be manager of this team, and I have promised them that next season we will be much better.” (Roy Collins)

The Times: The Frenchman tapped in Steven Pienaar’s cross to settle an entertaining, absorbing match that turned on Phil Dowd’s decision to apply the letter of the law, and not common sense, when the referee dismissed James Tomkins for clipping Tim Cahill as he squeezed into the penalty area. Football strives for consistency in its referees, but what hope is there when the same official cannot deliver equality in the same game? Dowd failed even to talk to Phil Neville for a deliberate hack when Luís Boa Morte burst clear before Saha’s penalty. (Gary Jacob)

The Guardian: The centre-backs James Tomkins and Matthew Upson, together with the goalkeeper Robert Green, led the fight to repel all raiders, but every man more than played their part. "Everyone stood up to it and really took on board the information we were given," said Green... Arguably the most promising young defender in the country, Tomkins won most of his aerial battles, but it was his reading of the game and his positioning which that stood out. His partnership with Matthew Upson is becoming one of the best in the Premier League. ( Richard Rae)

BBC Sport: With their confidence now visibly lifted the home side upped their game and eight minutes after the restart Tomkins doubled their lead. The centre-half rose highest and his towering header from Noble's corner beat the recalled Gordon in the Sunderland goal. Tomkins then almost scored a carbon-copy third but this time Gordon was able to turn his header away and then save the follow-up from Matthew Upson.

Sky Sports: It proved to be a big day for West Ham's kids as 20-year-old academy product James Tomkins headed the Hammers into a two goal lead on 53 minutes. He rose well to send a towering header beyond Craig Gordon from Mark Noble's corner.

Hammers Mad: Buoyed by that unexpected interval lead, Zola's men doubled their advantage seven minutes into the second period, after Tristan mustered his first shot of the afternoon. Gordon performed wonders to divert the Spanish striker's goalbound 18-yard shot aside, but when Noble floated the resulting corner towards Tomkins, the Scottish shot-stopper was left helpless as the defender's downward header squirmed over the line.

The Sunday Mirror : Centre-back James Tomkins scored his first goal for the club and Mark Noble made merry in midfield. But the buzz created around the stadium every time 19-year-old Stanislas got on the ball showed a new star has been born in the east end.... His England Under-20 teammate Tomkins shrugged off the challenge of his West Ham predecessor Anton Ferdinand to head home a Noble corner after 53 minutes for his first goal for the club. "Coming from the youth team and being here since I was eight, it was massive for me to score," said the 20-year-old. (Neil Mcleman)

Daily Telegraph: Ever since the club provided the beating heart of England's World Cup winners in 1966 their influence upon the national side has been profound, as the presence of such alumni as Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand in Fabio Capello's reckoning still testifies. After this emphatic dispatching of Sunderland, engineered by two players raised within 10 miles of Upton Park, the names of Junior Stanislas and James Tomkins can tentatively be added to that roster. For 12 months West Ham have been caricatured as the prime subjects of foreign meddling: the Icelandic ownership, the appointment of an Italian sporting director in Gianluca Nani, even the preference for Gianfranco Zola as manager above respectable domestic candidates. But Stanislas and Tomkins, who both scored their first senior goals, form a compelling counter-argument by virtue of their background, which could not be any more claret-and-blue had they been plucked straight from Green Street. Where Stanislas, at 19, is a product of Kidbrooke, just across the river from E13, Tomkins is Basildon born and bred. In short, West Ham hardly had to search far to find them, even if the tentacles of Nani's elaborate scouting network extends to obscure foreign outposts including Serie B club Brescia, from where the club brought Savio Nsereko, a tellingly unused substitute here. (Oliver Brown)

The Times: James Tomkins, who has been at the club since he was 8, scored West Ham’s second goal. The centre half made his debut a year ago and although he has just turned 20, has already suffered various serious injuries and been sent out on loan. “You get your chance here,” Tomkins said. (Alyson Rudd)

Hammers News: Never looked in trouble after coming on for the injured Collins. I am sure he will become a regular first-team player next season.

Basildon Echo: Insomnia is not something Basildon-based West Ham defender James Tomkins suffered from before last weekend. But then it is not every weekend you make your Premier League debut at the age of 18 in front of nearly 40,000 screaming fans. That is exactly what the former Chalvedon School pupil did on Saturday, when he ran out for the Hammers at Everton. The prospect of playing for the club he supports for the first time left Tomkins lying awake at night - but the teenager was more than happy to suffer from a lack of sleep if it meant fulfilling his footballing dreams. "I hardly had any sleep over the weekend. I couldn't sleep the night before the game and I couldn't sleep at all the night after," he admitted. "I was thinking before that I could be playing and I had prepared as if I was, which is what I always do. "But when the manager named the team I was absolutely buzzing. "I was thinking This is what I have been playing for for so many years. This is what I live for'." With Matthew Upson injured and Jonathan Spector jet lagged after a midweek trip to the United States, Tomkins became the second Academy of Football graduate to make his debut in the space of a week. Seven days earlier, striker Freddie Sears hit the headlines by scoring against Blackburn Rovers at Upton Park. At Goodison Park, Tomkins almost repeated the trick, hitting the Everton crossbar with a fine header after just four minutes. "Mark Noble put in a great ball and I managed to get my head on it," he explained. "Obviously it all happened really quickly but I was just praying it would go in. When it hit the bar I just felt really frustrated because, after Freddie scored last week, I could just imagine what it would have been like if I'd scored on my debut." Four minutes later, Tomkins learned just how cruel a game football can be as Nigerian striker Yakubu held off the youngster before firing the home side ahead. But, like all good professionals, the defender - who will play for England Under-19s in a friendly against Russia in Milton Keynes tonight - learned from his mistake to produce a performance that grew in stature. "I learned a lot more about what he was going to do as the game went on," he said. "He was stronger than me so after the goal, when he rolled me, I didn't want to get too tight to him. "I have high expectations of myself. I just play to 110 per cent and play every game as if it's going to be my last." And it is Tomkins' temperament, as well as his tenacious tackling and composure in possession, that have the club's management raving about the young defender. (Basildon Echo, 26th March, 2008)

Sky Sports: The Hammers gave centre-back James Tomkins his first start, and it was something of a baptism of fire against the power of Yakubu - even if the England Under 19 international could have scored inside five minutes... It was Basildon-born Tomkins who almost made it a dream debut. He met Mark Noble's corner 12 yards out, and his looping header clattered against the bar. But three minutes later, after Anton Ferdinand had lost out in the air to Anichebe, Tomkins was equally at fault when he was out-muscled by Yakubu midway inside West Ham's half and the big Nigerian surged away and scored past Green. (Rob Parrish, 22nd March, 2008)

Daily Mirror: Hammers manager Alan Curbishley, who watched Dean Ashton head home a second-half equaliser, bravely decided to give youth its head in the continuing absence of so many of the big-name players he bought in the summer and it almost paid rich dividends. Tomkins looked yet another defender in the best traditions of West Ham, his early drubbing at the hands of Yakubu apart. And his decision to give 18-year-old Sears his head later in the game was an inspired one. The striker could have won the match after rousing the Hammers with his enthusiasm, and it looked for all the world like he had done everything right in the last minute, only for his shot to hit the post. "These kids deserve their chance," Curbs said. "I believe in them and I decided a couple of weeks ago that we were in no man's land and we had nothing to lose. They will not be fazed because they are so level-headed." (David Maddock, 24th March 2008)

The Times: Another week, another 18-year-old debutant: James Tomkins at centre back. He hit the bar with a header in the first five minutes, was at fault for Everton’s goal, then had a solid showing thereafter. (Tom Dart, 24th March 2008)

The Guardian: As exhaustion set in, West Ham's reserves of energy - indeed, their reserves with energy - prevailed. And it was the men from mid-table, their weekly injury bulletin notwithstanding, who boasted options, the most intriguing of them lending a futuristic look to their side. While Everton's focus on the short term is undiluted, West Ham can take a broader view. "I've got to have one hand on trying to win Premier League matches and another on the future of the club," said the manager, Alan Curbishley. That entailed the introduction of the 18-year-old James Tomkins for his debut. The central defender soon struck the bar and then erred for Everton's goal - "Yakubu rolled him," said Curbishley - before the Nigerian finished forcefully. Yet after an eventful but chastening opening, Tomkins recovered admirably. He forms part of a youthful collective in an East End union that finds favour with its customers. "I came down to breakfast and three of them were sitting round the table, [Jack] Collison, Freddie Sears and James Tomkins," Curbishley said. "Then [Mark] Noble came down and he was like the shop steward because he's a year older than them; I thought he was taking their subs." The apprentices are being schooled in the way of things at Upton Park and one has already shown a propensity to strike. Sears, their match-winner against Blackburn nine days ago, rolled a shot against a post during a sparkling cameo. There is an endearingly old-fashioned element to West Ham's faith in youth, mirrored in their support. "Mark Noble's is the biggest-selling shirt in the club shop because he's home-grown," said Curbishley. "It's as simple as that." Given Noble's intelligent repertoire of an inside-forward's skills, sheer locality should not be the sole reason for the midfielder's popularity with the fans. In the company of such ingenus, Dean Ashton approaches veteran status. The 24-year-old's equaliser, headed in emphatically from Lucas Neill's cross, was almost overshadowed as Sears displayed pace and promise in equal measure. Noble, seemingly inspired, whistled a late long-range shot over the bar. Adventurousness can be infectious but, as Everton know, anxiety is equally contagious. (Richard Jolly, 24th March 2008)