Hammers’ midfielder Mark Noble is calling on the team to work harder and find that winning formula

MARK NOBLE has already achieved one miracle this season. Just 12 days after having his appendix removed, the midfielder was back in claret and blue and playing his heart out against Blackpoo on Saturday.

Now he needs to help create another miracle and get the Hammers out of the precarious position they find themselves in, hopefully without the need for radical surgery.

The 23-year-old, who clocked up his 150th appearance in claret and blue against Blackpool, knows that they need to improve on the performances they have put in so far.

“I am a positive person, but the players know it isn’t good enough,” said the Canning Town-born West Ham supporter. “We need to come together as a team, we need to put points on the board and if we can do that we will start climbing the table gradually.”

Noble has been one of the shining lights of this dismal season. He was in the form of his career before being struck down with appendicitis, but despite that, the results have not been coming for the Hammers.

It is something that has puzzled the former England under-21 international. “I’m not sure why things are not coming together,” he admitted. “We are letting in sloppy goals and in the Premier League you get punished, that’s what’s been happening.

“But if you watch our games this season we’ve played unbelievably well in some of them, we have been scoring, but letting them in as well.

“We didn’t concede today, but we didn’t have that little bit of quality in the final third to create one. It’s gutting and devastating and we need to push on. We know it’s not good enough. We need to score more goals and keep more clean sheets and we haven’t been.”

He’s our manager. He’s the man to guide us out of it. I don’t know what is happening behind the scenes. As long as the gaffer is in charge we will behind him.

Rumours from within the club have suggested that the players are not happy with the manager or the training regime at West Ham, but predictably, Noble is sticking behind the boss.

“It’s all rumours,” he insisted. “I’m sure the boys are happy and if they aren’t they should do a bit better themselves. I am happy myself and I am enjoying football and hopefully we can pick up some points soon.

“Avram Grant is our manager. He’s the man to guide us out of it. I don’t know what is happening behind the scenes. As long as the gaffer is in charge we will behind him.”

West Ham travel to Liverpool on Saturday, a ground where they haven’t won since 1963, but though Noble accepts it will be a tough task, he is also hopeful that the Hammers can find their form.

“It’s just our luck at the minute that Liverpool have found a bit of form at home, but all you can do is beat what’s in front of you,” he said.

“It’s 11 against 11 and we have to be positive and try to get some points.

“We must prepare to go to Anfield the same as you do for any game, you go there to try to take points.

“Liverpool have some fantastic players and a great manager and we need to go there and show exactly what we can do.”

We know what Noble can do. He has filled the void left first by Thomas Hitlsperger and then by Valon Behrami as they have struggled with injury and at the same time he has resurrected his career at Upton Park to the point where he was being mentioned in dispatches for a senior England call-up.

His powers of healing seem to be miraculous, now the rest of the squad need to show the same sort of commitment and passion for the cause and that will surely hoist them up the Premier League table.