West Ham's encouraging festive form was brought to a halt in midweek with a 5-0 thumping at Newcastle that saw Avram Grant's side drop back to the bottom of the Barclays Premier League.

But the Hammers have now won three and drawn two of their last six games - and Noble is excited about the opportunity of taking the club back to Wembley for the first time in 30 years.

"A club like this should not be in this position, with the players we have got and the fanbase but we are and we have to dig ourselves out of it again," Noble said.

"What happened midweek was horrible, it was horrible to be involved with but we needed to put that in the back of our minds. Today could have been a massive banana skin but we came through it.

"We knew it was a terrible performance but there was no point dwelling on it. We needed to win the game today to get a bit of confidence for Tuesday and that is our main focus now.

"A semi-final gives you something to look forward to. We want to beat Birmingham over two legs and be at Wembley. That is our aim. It would be fantastic."

Avram Grant's position as manager has come under the spotlight in recent weeks but Noble said the Israeli's positive disposition is not that of a man under pressure.

"He is a positive person and he tries to instil that in us to go out and play," Noble said.

"It has not been going the best for us but we turned it around over Christmas. Two wins can take us up to 11th and we have a run of games in February against teams around us."

The West Ham owners hold a board meeting on Wednesday, the day after the first leg against Birmingham, but Grant is not concerned about his future.

"I need to do my job. If I told you that your job was under threat, you wouldn't believe me and would speak to your boss," Grant said.

"So I spoke with the boss (co-chairman David Gold) and he did not say anything like this.

"The pressure is for me to achieve what I think I can achieve at this club. I think we are getting there step by step."

West Ham dominated the first half and should have had the game wrapped up by half-time yesterday - but they ran into a goalkeeper in inspired form.

Luke Steele denied both Zavon Hines and Pablo Barrera with brilliant double saves and he pulled off a string of key saves.

Jonathan Spector finally broke the deadlock but West Ham went flat after the interval and Barnsley almost equalised when Adam Hammill hit the bar in injury-time.

But luck was on West Ham's side and they broke down field to wrap up the victory through Frederic Piquionne.

"I am gutted as we nearly caused an upset," said Steele.

"They are bottom of the league and you could see their confidence ebbing away and the worries that were coming into their mind (as the game wore on).

"When you are in a game like that you always get a chance and the one where we hit the bar was our chance."

Barnsley manager Mark Robins said the second half performance proved what his side are capable of and Steele believes they can build on that to target a play-off place.

He said: "We are 16th and it is very tight. We are six points behind the play-offs with a game in hand and anything is possible.

"The last couple of years we didn't have the team to get into the play-offs, we did well to stay up, but this time it is different and we have flair players and a solid back four."