Obafemi Martins celebrates his first goal in Newcastle colours

Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins has been praised by Newcastle United manager Glenn Roeder.

The 21-year-old, who joined the English club last month from Italy's Inter Milan, claimed his first goal for the Magpies on Sunday at the third attempt.

"We bought him from one of the hardest leagues in the world to score goals," Roeder explained.

"His record at (Inter) Milan was very, very good, so it was a question of being patient and waiting for him to adjust to the Premiership.

"He is not fully there yet, but he obviously made great strides on Sunday and, without doubt, that was his best game.

"He was relieved after the game and I think the boys also were relieved for him because he has really made a great impression with the players.

"He is a good man to work with and they like being with him and working hard with him."

Roeder is confident that Martins, who wears the number nine shirt vacated by retired captain Alan Shearer, will add many more goals to his strike in the 2-0 win at West Ham.

"As a striker, when you come to a new club, you want to score as soon as possible," the Newcastle boss added.

"He would have liked to have done the job in the first game, but it was not to be.

"But we knew what we had bought once we saw him in training. It was a question of time, just being patient and waiting, and it came on Sunday for him.

"He was getting a little bit frustrated with himself, but the other players were not and now it has come, he will relax a lot more and we will see some of the special goals we see every day in training."

Newcastle paid �10m (US$19m) for Martins, who scored 28 goals in 87 league games for Inter.