O´Brien: Top half is fantastic for West Ham

West Ham defender Joey O’Brien is delighted that his side are closing in on their initial target of a top-half Premier League finish.

The London club sit 10th in the top flight, two points clear of 11th-placed Fulham, with four games remaining this season.

And O’Brien has described that as a “fantastic achievement” for a squad which only achieved promotion last term.

“At the start of the season a top-10 finish was always the target,” he told the club’s official website.

“There wasn’t any talk of relegation when we set out in pre-season and look at us now, we’re right on track to finish in the top half of the table.

“As a newly promoted team that’s a fantastic achievement. Although Reading won the Championship last season, they’ve struggled this year. It’s a hard league but we had players who had played in the top flight and that helped us from the start.”

O’Brien also praised club captain Kevin Nolan, who notched his 100th career goal during the weekend win over Wigan.

He said of the midfielder: “He’s been doing it all of his career, 100 goals is a really good record as an English midfielder to get that many goals.

“Kevin gets the important ones, when it matters. Look at our game against Wigan, we needed that cushion and he popped up again.

“It did get nervy at times but we’ve done this a few times this season when we’ve just dug in and in the end we come out the other side of it.

“That’s what the lads were saying on the pitch and then Nobby popped up with that goal to ease everyone’s nerves and give us a comfortable win.”