Sam Allardyce is enjoying the feeling of starting the week on top of the npower Championship table.

The West Ham United manager watched a brace of penalties from Mark Noble see off Nottingham Forest 2-1 - who registered a late consolation from Lewis McGugan - at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday, with the result sending the Hammers to the top of the table for the first time this season.

The success was West Ham's third consecutive league win and opened up a three-point gap between the Hammers and second-placed Southampton, although the Saints can go back to the summit with victory over Leicester City on Monday evening.

"I think we will get a psychological boost from going top," said Big Sam. "It might only be for a short time as Southampton play on Monday night and have a fantastic home record.

"We might not stay there that long but we've shown that we can get there. When we've had the opportunity to get there before we've blown it. We didn't blow it on Saturday and got the precious three points we were looking for and can feel very satisfied by getting the 53 points we have done up until now."

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Big Sam conceded that his side were not always at their best against Forest, though. Before Noble had given the Hammers a 45th-minute lead from the spot the visitors had passed up several good chances to open the scoring.

"The players looked a bit nervous - we started a little slowly and then one or two passes started going astray. Then Forest created a couple of half-chances and we started to get a little more edgy and nervous so it wasn't our usual fluent performance that we show at home.

"Whether we deserved it or not is immaterial. When we came in at half-time we said 'Well we haven't played well but we how many teams have come back from one-nil down against us and won' and the answer to that is hardly any.

"I think everyone turned up thinking that West Ham would just win 3-0 but it doesn't work like that. We had to really dig it out. From our point of view we're top of the league for the first time in 27 games."

West Ham now have ten days without a game before resuming their npower league campaign with a trip to Ipswich Town on Tuesday week and Big Sam will be looking to use the break to focus efforts on bringing in attacking reinforcements.

"Against Forest we created some chances from really good movement and had some opportunities to score. I still had that nagging doubt that we hadn't converted chances to goals in open play. It's still a little concern but I still have faith in the players here even though I am looking to strengthen in that area.

"At the start of the season we were having no problem finishing our chances. We scored four against Watford, four at Forest, three at Leicester and four against Blackpool, so we've shown we can do it but at the moment we're not quite clinical enough. We had to rely on Noble with two very good penalties."

There was concern just before the break when Papa Bouba Diop was forced from the field with a slight thigh strain. Although he is expected to recover in time to face the Tractor Boys his replacement, Henri Lansbury, caught the eye as the Hammers seized control in the second period.

"I think Henri did well. His passing got better and he was better than some of the players that were playing at that time. Improving the team is very important when you come on as a sub because our team in midfield were not passing well.

"It was one of those days where we've overcome the nerves and the guys will have woken up on Sunday to see us at the top of the league."