Noble spot-on for Hammers

Mark Noble's early penalty secured the points for West Ham as they laboured to a 1-0 win over Peterborough in the Championship at Upton Park.

Sam Allardyce's side are now seven games unbeaten but despite taking the lead and dominating the opposition the home side appeared toothless in attack and failed to kill the game off. Noble kept his cool to convert from the spot and put the home side ahead on 11 minutes after Lee Frecklington was adjudged to have pushed Henri Lansbury just inside the box following a low cross from Julien Faubert. Peterborough had started brightly up until that point and could have gone ahead inside the first minute when a near-post Grant McCann corner was met by the head of Tommy Rowe with West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green forced into making a smart save. The penalty took the sting out of Peterborough's performance as they kept affording Faubert space on both flanks, although the Frenchman's crosses were all well dealt with by the Posh backline. Carlton Cole, deployed as a lone striker, came closest to adding a second for West Ham before the break but after bullying Ryan Bennett off the ball he curled his shot wide of Paul Jones' far post. West Ham dominated the first 45 minutes but their attacks were largely disjointed although Lansbury could have doubled the lead just before the interval but he fired over after the ball had bounced kindly to him on the edge of the box. George Boyd looked sharp for visitors, controlling possession for Peterborough in the final third although he was restricted to long-range efforts which rarely threatened Green in the West Ham goal. Peterborough's top scorer Lee Tomlin was brought on at half-time and he came close to equalising early in the second-half but as the West Ham defense backed off his well-struck effort zipped past the post. The lively Faubert was again involved on the hour-mark as he came close to connecting with Matthew Taylor's cross before Peterborough went straight down the other end and Tomlin forced Green into his first decent save since the opening minute. Green was nearly caught out by a long-range effort from McCann after 65 minutes but managed to hold the Peterborough captain's shot at the second attempt. Tomlin, who had looked a constant threat for Posh since being introduced by Darren Ferguson at half-time was forced off with an injury with 15 minutes remaining. Substitute David Bentley finally forced Jones into action when his effort stung the palms of the Peterborough keeper as the home fans grew continually more restless with their side's lack of creativity. Despite the disapproving jeers from the home support Peterborough could not fashion any late chances and West Ham held on for an unconvincing win.