Scott Carson's debt to Roy Hodgson

Keeper Scott Carson today thanked Roy Hodgson for repairing his battered confidence after he went from the Albion bench to the England squad in two months.

The former Baggies captain was an England substitute on Tuesday just weeks after he was axed from his club side following a howler at Fulham.

And Carson believes his recall to Albion duty by new boss Hodgson has helped him regain his belief.

"It is a turnaround," said Carson. "When I was out of the team it was looking pretty grim for me and to be honest I pretty much thought I wasn't going to see much action for the rest of the season. But since the new boss has been here he has put a lot of confidence in me by putting me straight back in and hopefully I can carry on the form I've showed in the last few games and we can avoid the drop.

"He hasn't really said anything — he didn't have to really. Just the fact he put me back in the side has given me the confidence and after that it was just down to me to try to prove everyone wrong. Being involved with England is a confidence booster for anyone and just to have got the call-up again was good. It's just good to know I'm still part of the plans at international level.

"It's not as if your confidence returns overnight because it just doesn't work like that but I've been glad to get back in the team at West Brom."

"The last three or four games have worked out really well, so all I can carry on doing is making sure my club form is good and then hopefully I'll still be involved in the international set-up."

Carson was recalled by Hodgson for the 1-1 draw at Stoke and has also played in the victory at Birmingham and the home draw with Arsenal.

And the former Liverpool man said: "I've only played four games since I came back in, but it's been a decent spell and we've had some good results.

"Hopefully the last eight games of the season go as well as the last four.

"Every day we work on being a lot more solid — we work a lot more on team shape really.

"We've got the players that can go forward naturally, so it was all about us tightening up at the back and we've done that in the last few games."