Noble issues rallying cry to West Ham United team-mates

Skipper Mark Noble has called upon his team-mates to rally together to pull West Ham United out of their current slump.

Boos rang out around the London Stadium on Sunday at the conclusion of a 3-0 defeat by Southampton that left the Hammers in the bottom three of the Premier League table.

A summer switch of stadiums was due to usher in an exciting new dawn for the east London club but, as yet, West Ham have failed to hit the pre-season hype surrounding the new campaign.

Noble has experienced similar situations in the past and was part of the team that produced a great escape to beat the drop back in 2007.

The 29-year-old midfielder said: “These are times when you have to stick together. I’ve been through it many times before — in worse positions than this and with weaker squads — and we’ve dug ourselves out of it. We are still together.

(Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

“The hard thing is to understand why it’s going wrong. I’ve played in this league for a lot of years and it just seems like, at the moment, we can’t get a goal that means something.

“We do have a couple of key players missing — we’ve lost two left-backs in Aaron Cresswell and Arthur Masuaku but we are not making excuses.

“It’s hard to take, especially after the results we had last season. You can only say a certain number of times ‘we’re waiting for a break or a bit of luck’, because sometimes you make your own luck. We’re just not playing well and need to liven ourselves up.

“You have to be like that in this league because, if you aren’t brave, you will pay the ultimate price.”