Noble focused on Cardiff City

Hammer of the Year Mark Noble wants the Hammers to focus on winning the Play Offs and not dwell on missing out on an automatic promotion spot.

Although the Hammers won 2-1 at home to Hull City in their final game of the season it wasn't enough to overtake Southampton in second place. Big Sam's men now face Cardiff City in the Play Off Semi-Final and Noble wants there to be no lasting disappointment over finishing third.

"We set out for automatic promotion at the start of the season and after the game against Hull I said to the lads that we had better get our heads around the situation quickly.

"You could tell on Saturday that we were disappointed having ended up third and just missing out. We need to banish that disappointment quickly because Cardiff are a top team with a good manager."

Noble is the only member of the current West Ham squad who was involved in the Hammers' last Play Off campaign in 2005 when they beat Preston North End 1-0 in the final to secure a return to the Premier League. It was an experience Noble remembers well.

"Last time we did it, I was a young kid and I remember Alan Pardew telling me to get ready to go on with about 25 minutes left," said Noble, who collected his Hammer of the Year prize at Monday's Player Awards Dinner.

"It was unbelievable to get on and see the Final out, I've only had that feeling a couple of times before in my career and hopefully I can experience it again."

West Ham travel to Cardiff City on Thursday 3 May for their first leg Semi-Final Play Off match before hosting the Bluebirds for the second leg at the Boleyn Ground on bank holiday Monday 7 May. The other Semi Final is between Birmingham City and Blackpool with the final between the two victorious sides set for May 19 at Wembley. 

Tickets for the away leg at Cardiff have completely sold out and ticket information for the home second leg can be found by clicking here