West Ham United captain Mark Noble has urged the Hammers to finish the job tonight as they face Birkirkara in the second leg of their Europa League tie in the second qualifying round.

Slaven Bilic’s men take a slender 1-0 lead going into the second leg in Malta after James Tomkins netted late on in the first leg at Upton Park last week.

And the east Londoners will face either Inverness Caledonian Thistle or Astra Giurgiu in the next phase of the competition if they advance tonight (kick off 7.45pm).

Birkirkara provided a stern test for the Hammers and it was not until the 90th minute the deadlock was broken.

Speaking to the club's website before tonight's clash, Noble insisted the Hammers are looking forward to the game and want to progress to the next round of the competition.

"Last Thursday was only our second game we've played in pre-season, so we're still unfit really and it was good to get the win," stated Noble. "I know it was a late goal from Tonks, but they made it difficult for us.”

The Hammers will have to play tonight's match in temperatures over 30c and Noble feels the heat might have an impact on the players.

“It will be a challenge with the heat," he confirmed. "I don't think the game will be as quick was it was the other night because of the heat, but we're looking forward to it.

"It's the Europa League and we want to progress, so hopefully we can go out there and come away with a win.”

Meanwhile, Bilic admitted the 1-0 scoreline his side have taken to Malta is "not ideal" and he is under no illusions as to the task facing his side.

He explained: "Well the score was not ideal, to be fair, and we were hoping to have one more goal.

"Before that game I didn’t dream it would be like the Andorra kind of a game (vs Lusitans in round one). I played a few times against Maltese teams and against the national team, and Croatia drew 1-1 once here when I was Under-21s.

"We are still the favourite and are better than them, but the gap is closing.

"We are better than them of course, and to get a better result than 1-0 we should have scored earlier which I think we deserved, but at the end, we have a positive result.

"I am sure that it should be enough especially if we score a goal here, which we will try to do, and our team is capable of.”