Mark Noble’s top five moments for West Ham United
By Jack Hobbs
After months of speculation and hints from the man himself, Mark Noble has announced that the 2021/22 Premier League season will be his last as a West Ham player.
Noble has decided to hang up his boots at the end of next season after signing a contract extension that will take him up until the end of next season. Our captain has given us 18 years worth of undying loyalty, leadership and passion on the pitch, in which he has amounted 520 appearances and 60 goals in all competitions so far according to transfermarkt.
He will be always regarded as a club legend at West Ham.
"“My connection and love for West Ham United will be forever.” – Mark Noble"
During Noble’s West Ham career there have been many highpoints such as the Playoff final and the final season at Upton Park. There have also been low points, including relegation in 2011 and being robbed of his first England cap by Roy Hodgson in 2015. Roy you have blood on your hands!
But today we will be focusing on just some of the many positive moments in Noble’s West Ham career.
In no particular order, here are my top five Mark Noble moments:
First West Ham goal
We may as well start at the beginning, with Mark Noble’s first goal for West Ham. Noble made it onto the West Ham scoresheet for the first time in 2007, in a 3rd round FA cup tie against then League one Brighton and Hove Albion side. The Hammers were in dire need of a confidence boost, having lost six of their last eight league games.
Noble opened the scoring and his West Ham account with a well taken volley set up by Carlos Tevez in what was the first goal of a 3-0 win against the Seagulls. The young Argentine headed the ball down to Noble who struck his first-time volley into the bottom right corner to give West Ham a 1-0 lead in the second half.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the start of another cup run for the Hammers as they were then knocked out by Watford in the 4th round after losing 1-0 at Upton Park, meaning there would be no repeats of the previous year’s journey to Wembley. Noble had played no part in the previous year’s cup run as he was out on loan at Hull City and Ipswich Town respectively.
The FA cup may not have been of much use to us that year but it served the purpose of giving our future captain his first goal for the club. The pure delight and passion on a young Noble’s face when he ran off to the corner flag celebrating, was an indication of the many years of passion and joy he would bring to the West Ham fans.