Allardyce delight tempered by Carroll injury

West Ham manager praises striker who had to go off during 3-0 win over Fulham

Sam Allardyce expressed his delight after his West Ham United side made up for a disappointing defeat by Swansea City last week to record a comfortable 3-0 win over Fulham.

Debutant Andy Carroll was in lively form with the Liverpool loanee adding a cutting edge to the Hammers front line before appearing to tweak a hamstring in the second half and Allardyce believes he will miss out on England's World Cup qualifiers next week.

Captain Kevin Nolan opened the scoring for the home side inside the opening minute and they were out of sight by the break thanks to further goals from Winston Reid and Matt Taylor.

"No question it's the right result today,” the West Ham manager said. "Fulham were out of sight by half-time and that doesn't happen too often with a newly promoted side finding their feet in the Premier League."

As for Carroll's injury that forced him off, Allardyce doubted his availability for England. "It is hugely disappointing if that's the case [a hamstring injury] but it will be unlikely he goes [away with England]," he said.

"I don't think he's much chance - sadly for Roy [Hodgson] and sadly for us. It depends on the extent of the damage.

"He is desperate to play football. We had Carlton Cole warmed up and ready to go and Andy was going to be substituted anyway in the next couple of minutes. But unusually he did it [injured the hamstring] on the jump."

Fulham manager Martin Jol acknowledged his team did not get to grips with the threat of Carroll and struggled to gel.

"You have to be on the end of the first balls or get on the end of the knockdowns - and we didn't do that, although we were better in the second half,” Jol said. "Today we had four or five players who lacked a bit of rhythm because of transfers. Hopefully we will get a bit of balance in the next month."

Nolan was delighted with the response to last week's 3-0 defeat at Swansea.

"After the disappointment of last week it was important we bounced back,” said Nolan. "We were confident going into the season but it's back to the drawing board now. It's nice to go into an international break having done the business.

"Overall it was a fantastic afternoon and we are very happy with the three points."