Mark Noble has told his West Ham United teammates to be proud of their second-half performance in this afternoon's 2-0 defeat away to Manchester City.

An erratic first-half display at Eastlands appeared to have undermined the Hammers, who fell behind on 18 minutes when James Collins's botched clearance looped over Adrian.

Sergio Aguero doubled the lead on a counter-attack that stemmed from another mistake to compound an error-laden half from Sam Allardyce's side.

However, the Irons responded well and missed a host of second-half chances to reduce the deficit, and Noble says that those opportunities represent positives.

"I think we played a lot better in the second half and had a couple of chances," he told the club's official website.

"You know you're not going to get a lot of chances here and the ones you do get, you have to take. Unfortunately, we couldn't take them on Sunday.

"Enner's wiggled through and just missed the target, if you get a goal back then it puts a little bit of pressure on them."

Allardyce's side, who have won just twice in 2015, remain 10th in the Premier League table.