On-loan striker Daryl Murphy says he wants to stay with the Blues and hopes Town and Sunderland can agree a fee for his services in the summer. The 27-year-old netted his sixth goal of his loan spell to give the Blues a 1-0 victory over Barnsley on Saturday.
Murphy, who has two years left on his Black Cats contract, confirmed that he’d love to still be with the Blues next season: "I want to stay here. Hopefully Ipswich will want me and a fee can be agreed. I want to play regular first team football and I want to play for Roy Keane.”
Last summer, Town and Sunderland agreed an undisclosed fee for Murphy but the deal broke down after Hull City made a late move. The Tigers confirmed that they had agreed a fee of £1.5 million rising to £2.5 million with the Black Cats for the striker and it's likely that the same figure was involved in the Town deal.
Wages are likely to be a further issue with Murphy probably on something approaching double Town's top wage, which is understood to be around the £12,000-a-week mark.
The Republic of Ireland international said had no problem with Town manager Roy Keane hitting out at his players after the defeat at Watford last week: "The gaffer was right to have a go at us. We didn't perform at Watford and too many of us didn't turn up. But we responded today by picking up three points.
"I appreciate his straight-talking. The players pulled together and showed what we can do when we’re on song.”
Murphy was delighted with Saturday’s goal, but says it was far from the trickiest of his career: "It was the easiest goal I have ever scored. It was so easy that I thought I might be offside, so I looked at the linesman just to make sure."
That goal took the former Waterford United man to six goals for Town, making him the Blues’ joint-top scorer for the season with Jon Walters and Jon Stead. Murphy joked: "If I get to seven goals do I get the Golden Boot?"
Meanwhile, former Blue John Deehan has joined ex-Town team-mate Neil Woods as his head of recruitment at Grimsby Town. Woods took over as manager at Blundell Park in November.