Midfielder wants to score goals and lead Hammers back into the Premier League

West Ham midfielder Kevin Nolan says that he can’t wait for the new season to start and that he is looking forward to getting the club back where they belong – in the Premier League.

The 29-year-old Liverpudlian, who joined in a �3 million deal from Newcastle this summer, is thought to be the Hammers’ captain for the season and played his first 90 minutes in claret and blue during the club’s 0-0 draw with Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

“I was just happy to get 90 minutes,” said Nolan.

“I had an hour in Copenhagen the other day, so to get the 90 today just helps with the old muscles and the sharpness coming back.

Nolan missed the last two weeks of Newcastle’s Premier league campaign with injury and he admitted he was feeling the rust when he first returned to training with West Ham.

“My first 45 minutes against Basel I thought I was going to die,” laughed Nolan. “I hadn’t done anything for eight-and-a-half weeks, I had about three football sessions so I really felt it.

“To be where I am now, 10 or 11 days later, it is a big thumbs up to the medical team, to the staff and the fitness coaches and how they are working me, so hopefully come two week’s time I will be hoping to be ready.

“You are never 100 per cent when you get back there, but hopefully I will be at the top end, so we will be ready for Cardiff and get off to a bright start.”

Nolan went close to scoring on a couple of occasions on Saturday, and West Ham fans are only too aware, that the midfielder has a habit of notching goals.

“I’ve played at Upton Park for a number of years and scored a few goals against them and hopefully I will score a lot more goals for them,” said Nolan. “It has always been a nice ground for me, so hopefully it will be in the future.

“Against Wycombe on another day I could have had a couple of goals and I’m putting that down to the fact that it was my first 90 minutes. I said to the gaffer, ‘wait till we get to competitive games, that’s when you can have a go at me over that’.”

The competitive games are just around the corner and Nolan is already champing at the bit.

“I’m just really looking forward to the season now and getting my teeth into it,” he said. “I’ve moved down here, got my flat, so I am right in the thick of things and looking forward to it.”

Nolan may have moved from the north east to east London, but for him one thing is the same and that is the passion of the fans.

“This is a fantastic club,” he said. “There was never a doubt for me once I knew that West Ham were in for me and all the personal terms were sorted. It was just a fantastic move for me.

“The passion and everything at the club is amazing.

“At Newcastle I had a fantastic two-and-a-half years, and now to come here and you have got a set of fans who are exactly the same.

“I’m just hoping now that I can be as successful here as I was there and make sure that I can help get this team and these supporters back where they belong.”