Mark Noble believes he and his colleagues can push on from their perfect start to 2012 and end the season as champions.

Monday's 1-0 victory against Coventry City capped a memorable three days for Noble, who also wore the skipper's armband for the first time in a competitive fixture in the New Year's Eve fixture at Derby County in the absence of the suspended Kevin Nolan - a proud moment despite the fact West Ham suffered a 2-1 defeat.

"It was my first competitive match as captain and it was nice honour after all the hard work I've put in over the years," the Hammers No16 told West Ham TV.

"We didn't get the result we needed but we came back stronger on Monday and got the three points we needed. With the other teams losing as well, it was a good day for us.

"Promotion was my aim from the moment we got relegated. I thought to myself with the manager and players that we've brought in that the only option is promotion. We still need to achieve that.

"If the fans stick by us and we keep playing the way we did on Monday and getting three points and we all believe then we can achieve it."

The Canning Town-born favourite was delighted that the victory moved the club level with leaders Southampton.

A disappointing December that saw the Hammers pick up just four points from five matches had resulted in Sam Allardyce's side dropping out of the top two for the first time since 15 October.

However, Noble's outstanding performance helped West Ham return to winning ways courtesy of a success that was more convincing than the final scoreline suggests.

"We controlled the game from start to finish," he said - a statement supported by statistics that showed West Ham had 22 attempts on goal to Coventry's seven and eleven corners to the Sky Blues' six.

"A couple of results we have had lately have not been the best, but we're not going to go through the season being fantastic in every game. Hopefully we have got over our little blip now during which we had a lot of injuries and we got the three points we needed."

On Monday, West Ham laid seige to the Coventry goal, only to find goalkeeper Joe Murphy in inspired form. The Irishman did superbly to repel efforts from James Tomkins, Jack Collison and Sam Baldock, but was powerless to stop Kevin Nolan's 66th-minute header.

Noble said he had never given up hope that the Hammers would break through, despite Murphy's heroics.

"I kept saying to the boys 'Keep believing because it will come. If we keep doing the right things, passing it, getting it wide and getting crosses in, it will definitely come'. Thankfully it did in the end and we managed to achieve what we wanted."

The homegrown midfielder also thanked the Boleyn Ground crowd for keeping faith in their team. While the breakthrough took more than an hour to arrive, Noble said the supporters had not allowed their frustrations to have a negative effect on the players.

"Listen, we hear every moan and groan! We probably hear it a lot louder than everyone else because it is centred in on us.

"They stuck with us and didn't get frustrated and that's why we got our goal. I think sometimes the fans know and appreciate how much it spurs us on to do everything - to win the ball and score goals - if they do stick with us.

"That's what happened on Monday and that's what we need to happen for the rest of the season."