Quality all the way from skipper Noble

Mark Noble has had his fair share of criticism down recent seasons but he showed himself to be bang on the case at his best again last night.

Consistency remains the key and in some respects the skipper sometimes demonstrates the problems in his game that is reflected in the team – a lack of it!

However, last night he was in extraordinary form when he arrived for Pedro Obiang and was involved in the two goals big time.

First he played up a great ball for Arnie’s first and them set Antonio off on the run that led to the second.

With genuine involvement throughout Mark was a the sort of level he last showed against Manchester United and it was great to see.

His continued presence in the team has been questioned many times but he keeps bouncing last night and but for his performance I can hear now the song that would be sung on the forums today.

And assessing the game after the game he told www.whufc.com: It’s a different game from the side. You sit and watch, and I looked on and thought we just weren’t playing enough balls into Marko. We weren’t playing to his strengths, just like playing balls in over the top.

“Brighton are a fantastically set up team. They are a bit of a bogey team for us, but the way to hurt them was over the top with Marko’s pace and strength. As soon as I come on I thought that, as soon as I got the chance, I was going to put the ball over the top to him for him to run onto.

“Lucky enough he got his goal, and then the same with Michail. I played the ball to him out wide; he got to the byline and cut one back. It’s disappointing because we wanted to play much better than that at home, but it’s two set plays and silly goals that cost us.”

He added: “Over the Christmas period we’ve had two away games, been in hotels a lot and been at  Burnley and Southampton. I don’t know if that plays a part, but we’ve changed the team with three or four players.

“From where we was, 2-0 down, to get two goals, it’s a positive.”