Mark Noble produced one of the finest performances of his West Ham United career in leading the Hammers to victory over Millwall on Saturday.

The long-serving midfielder took the game by the scruff of the neck following the ninth-minute sending off of captain Kevin Nolan, producing an outstanding all-round display to earn the Man of the Match award.

Noble completed a memorable afternoon after picking up the SBOBET January Player of the Month award before kick-off and is now targeting back-to-back wins over Peterborough United and Southampton as the Hammers seek to stretch their lead at the top of the npower Championship.

The Millwall victory must have been one of the most gratifying in all your time as a West Ham United player?

"After what happened early in the game, we obviously had to play for about 85 minutes without our captain and without one of our players. It was tough, don't get me wrong. It was a tough game.

"I thought the boys at the back were brilliant, Tonks [James Tomkins] was brilliant and Coley up front was fantastic. Julien on the wide right was brilliant and Jack Collison and then Matty Taylor in the second half came on and filled in.

"Everybody was at their best and that's what we needed after going down to ten men. The energy and the commitment the boys showed was fantastic and they should be proud of themselves."

You appeared to make a conscious effort to lead by example. Would that be a fair observation?

"After Nobby was sent-off, I could imagine how everyone felt putting their heads down and thinking we had 90 per cent of the game to play with ten men. I wanted to get on the ball, get the tempo up and get the crowd with us and hopefully the boys fed off that.

"Credit to us because we went in 1-0 up with a great header from Coley and then we came out and we thoroughly deserved what we got."

Winston Reid's winner was a spectacular strike. Were you a bit shocked by the quality of his first-time finish?

"Reidy is technically a very good player. On the floor he can play and, funnily enough, he has got some skills as well but obviously you don't see them too much because I think the gaffer would kill him if he tried them!

"He's technically very good and when the ball dropped to him I was just over the moon that he stuck it away."

You looked overjoyed at full-time, punching the air and jumping around the pitch. That result must have meant a lot to you?

"It's not just because it was Millwall or anything like that. It wasn't about that. We needed to bounce back from the Ipswich game, which was nowhere near good enough by anyone's standards.

"On Saturday, playing against Millwall was a time to resurrect ourselves and become a team and become men again. I thought we did that."

We play Peterborough United and Southampton in the space of four days. How important is it that we turn our record of four wins in five league matches to six victories out of seven?

"We've got Peterborough away and Southampton at home. Saying that, every game is massive in this league. We went away to Ipswich the other day and got thrashed but that's what happens.

"This league is a tough league and if you are not on 100 per cent on it energy-wise and as a team, there is every chance you are going to get beaten. On Saturday, everyone was on it and that's what we want."

Is it fair to say that if we played with the same intensity that we showed against Millwall in every game, we would win more matches?

"It's hard to say that. When you've got ten men, I think everybody realises that they have got to put that little bit extra in. Obviously, if you play with that energy like we did, you will win more games than you lose and that's what we have done.

"We have not played the best in a lot of games but we're ticking off the wins and that's all that matters. If we get promoted in the summer, everyone will be over the moon."