Noble not fazed by Wigan challenge

Mark Noble won't be fazed by the occasion of Saturday's momentous match at Wigan Athletic after being involved in a whole host of key games for the Hammers this season.

"Before every Premiership game I've played in, which has been the last seven, people have been saying 'this one's massive, we have to win this,'" he said. "And it just keeps coming!

"We have to go to Wigan and set our stall out right. But I'm going to approach it like any other game. I know it's more important but I just have to go out there and give it 100%, like I always do."

After surviving six minutes of injury-time at the end of the 1-0 home win against Everton last week, Mark was able to look back on the experience and feel relieved.

"When I heard six minutes come over the tannoy I thought the geezer must have made a mistake," he said. "I've never heard of six minutes being added on before so I was just thinking 'please blow your whistle! We need the points more than them.' But he did eventually and we got the points we deserved."

There may be some nervy moments up in Wigan this weekend, but Mark is confident the travelling support will make all the difference.

"We're taking thousands of fans with us and they'll be fantastic," he said. "Wigan don't get that many either so it should be like a home match. I'm really looking forward to it. The noise they make is fantastic and that's going to be a massive bonus.

"All the players agreed it would be a nice gesture to pay for them to travel up. We want all the fans there so we're willing to do as much as we can to help make that possible. We're all in it together and we all have to fight together to stay in this league.

"The atmosphere in the last two home games, against Chelsea and Everton, has been fantastic and we feed off that. The strength and energy that comes from the fans will hopefully show at Wigan. We've got a good record up there too so I'm sure we can go up there and come out on top."