The 22-year-old moved to The Hawthorns in a £3.25million summer move from Liverpool, and caught the eye with several top-class saves in Albion's 0-0 draw at Bolton last week.

Carson appears to have won the battle with Dean Kiely for the first-team jersey - but he knows he needs to stay on top of his game to keep the veteran Republic of Ireland stopper on the bench and catch the eye of England coach Fabio Capello.

The goalkeeper does not have good memories of the last time he played for the Three Lions, with a high-profile blunder setting Croatia on the way to a 3-2 win in a Euro 2008 qualifier at Wembley last November.

Carson appears to have rebuilt his confidence and made a fresh start with the Baggies, though, and now wants to push David James for the number one spot in the national team.

"It's always nice to be with England but I have got to earn the right to be there," he said. "I just have to keep doing what I do and hopefully that will get me back in.

"If you're not playing first-team football you're not going to have a chance.

"It is going to take a few games to bed in but I am reasonably happy with how it's going.

"There was a bit of a lapse against Everton with Abou (Meite) but it will take a bit of time to get used to each other and apart from that incident it's been good.

"That incident was just one of those things that happens in football so it was nice to make a save or two at Bolton. You just have be alert and hopefully be ready when you need to be."

Carson added in the Birmingham Mail: "I am really pleased. I didn't want to come here and sit on the bench so I came here and worked hard and thankfully the manager gave me the nod.

"I suppose in another season we could have had five or six points but that's the way it is in the Premier League, it's not easy."