West Ham's Joey O'Brien scores his side's second goal during the Barclays Premier League match at Upton Park, London.

Hammers defender grabbed his second goal of the season but he was full of praise for Matt Jarvis

Joey O’Brien grinned when asked to recall his second league goal of the season on Tuesday: “I can’t really remember much about it,” he insisted.

Let us remind the 26-year-old then. First he played in Mark Noble inside the box and then when the ball was only partially cleared, it fell invitingly for the Irishman to stroke the ball into the net and make it 2-0 to West Ham.

“I think I gave it to ‘Nobes’ in the move, I can’t really remember all the details, but in the end I just passed it in instead of burying it and it went in,” he said.

One thing that O’Brien does remember is the contribution made by winger and record signing Matt Jarvis. He insisted that he couldn’t have done it without him.

“With Matt playing on the left he puts a hell of a lot of crosses in and I think it gives me the chance to sometimes nip inside because they are not always expecting a little pass from him,” explained the West Ham full back.

“I think defences are afraid of him. Since he has come in he has been brilliant. He gets in so many crosses.

“Against Reading I think he put in about 15 or 16 crosses. He draws people to him and when he does that and you are playing with him, it gives you the chance to come inside.”

It certainly worked against Norwich City and O’Brien admitted that it was a much-needed three points.

“It was a massive result, absolutely massive. It was such a disappointment at Reading and how that game went, when we thought we did enough to win that game too,” added O’Brien.

“But it was good to bounce back in front of our own fans and I think we played some good football as well.”

There were shaky moments near to the end, but O’Brien insisted that they deserved to win.

“Two-nil is one of the worst scores to have and in the second half they were obviously going to have a bit more possession.

“Them scoring late on made it a little bit nervy, but had they got the equaliser, it would have been really hard for us to take.”

It certainly would, but having got the three points, the team can now push on with some winnable games in January.

“It was a massive blow at Reading last week, because we went there to win,” said the reliable defender.

“That is why it was so important to get the three points against Norwich and with the teams we have got coming up, we have a real chance to win games.”