Mark Noble column: It won’t feel right without the fans… but we are raring to go

Tomorrow will be a new experience for me, as it will the rest of our team. At around 5.20pm at the London Stadium, whoever is leading out the West Ham team to play Wolves — of course, I hope it will be me — will walk up that tunnel and out onto the pitch.

The famous old Bubbles tune will no doubt be played, but there will be no roar of expectation and excitement — and that will feel weird.

If I’m honest, I’m looking forward to playing again, but I’m not really relishing the prospect of playing in near-empty stadiums, or the eerie silence when someone makes a tackle, when a shot that goes just wide or when the keeper makes a great save.

I don’t know how exactly it will all work, but the bottom line is that we have to make it work.

It is what it is, but football isn’t right without the fans. When they’re in their places, it can give you a massive edge when you’re playing at home or even when, like me, you get booed at other stadiums, it still gives you that adrenalin rush.

It is impossible to replicate that without the fans, but myself and the rest of the squad are determined to do our best in that regard, because we need to win football matches.

It’s such a strange situation, knowing our fans will be at home watching or listening tomorrow instead of in their usual seats.

I know they’ll all be shouting at their TVs, but we won’t be able to hear or see them. I want them to know, though, that even in their absence we will be playing for them. I’m sure they will be behind us — and we will have to tap into that virtual support for the next few weeks.

As for me, I’ve been warned by my mum and grandparents to watch my language, since they will be able to hear every word that’s said out there. I’ve promised to try!

We’re ready and eager to play again. The boys have really responded well since we returned to training. They came back from lockdown in good shape, we’ve trained well, we’ve had a couple of practice matches and we’re braced for the challenge ahead.

Normally, after your summer break, you go into a six-week pre-season full of hard graft and then go into the opening game, where you can’t breathe. You can’t replicate proper competitive games, no matter how many practice games you play. Why? Because 60,000 people help create that intensity. Full grounds help push you to the limit, force you to go that extra mile until your lungs are burning.

We’re going to have to get used to the differences — and the quicker we do that, the better we will perform. We have nine games to go and we are determined to climb away from trouble.

If you look back to March and just before the lockdown, we felt we were playing much better. I thought we thoroughly deserved to beat Southampton and then should have beaten Arsenal at their place just before the season was halted.

Our next two matches would have been Wolves, who had just played in Greece in the Europa League and then Tottenham, who were then without Harry Kane and Heung-min Son.

We felt there was a real opportunity there, but that’s in the past. We have to deal with the here and now and we also have players back from injury, so we’re in good shape.

After tomorrow, our next match is at Spurs’ new stadium without the fans and how weird is that going to be?

With nine games in six weeks, the manager will know he has to use his entire squad, because there is no way you can play the same team every week after such a long break and considering the unique circumstances.

I am one of a few players on the wrong side of 30, but we are fit and ready to make good use of our experience. We just hope we don’t pick up too many injuries, but everyone will be in the same boat.