Mark Noble reveals how Newcastle United's 'vocal' fans stopped him taking his penalty

Noble led West Ham United to a 2-0 win over Rafa Benitez's side at the London Stadium on Saturday.

The midfielder scored the club's second goal from the penalty spot late in the first half after Florian Lejeune brought down Javier Hernandez.

However, Noble stopped his run-up for the penalty as he hadn't heard the referee's whistle because of the noise from the travelling fans behind Martin Dubravka's goal.

Declan Rice, Noble's midfield partner, had given West Ham an early lead with a header from a corner.

Rice put his finger to his mouth in celebration, and Noble felt that the gesture was aimed at Newcastle's "vocal" 2,900 travelling fans and not visiting midfielder Sean Longstaff, who, like him, has been linked with an England call-up in recent weeks.

Asked about Rice being in the headlines, Noble said: “And he's going to be, because he’s a fantastic young player and made a massive choice (to switch international allegiance from the Republic of Ireland to England) in the last couple of weeks.

"He's not the sort of character who would do something towards another player like that – no chance. He’s probably just doing it to quieten Newcastle fans, because they can be quite vocal.

"That's why I stopped my penalty. I couldn’t hear the ref, because they were whistling so loud. I didn’t want to score and then the ref say ‘I didn’t blow my whistle – you can take it again'.

"That’s probably why he was doing it. To be honest, I think I will fine him for the celebration he did. The dance he did was terrible.”