Mick McCarthy says he’s confident his midfielders will score the goals required of them as the season progresses. So far, all the Blues’ backline have opened their accounts, while Jay Tabb and Paul Anderson — slightly dubiously — are the only midfield players to have got on the scoresheet.
"They’ve got to do, it’s not a question of whether they can, they have to,” McCarthy said. "And we’re getting them forward.
"Skusey was the one who headed the ball back across for Daryl Murphy [for his goal against Yeovil on Tuesday], so it could have been that Skusey was heading it in the net, but actually it was a really good header, he didn’t try and score because it was looping in and he just put it back across.
"Luke Hyam could have had a goal against Middlesbrough. They’re getting in the box and are getting a chance of being on the end of things and whenever they do that they’ll end up with a share of goals in the season.”
However, with the Blues having picked up six points in the last two games, McCarthy admits he’s not overly concerned who scores at present as long as goals are going in: "We’ve just won two on the bounce and scored goals. I don’t give a flying one where the goals come from, to be honest with you.
"That’s like looking for a negative from two positives and I can’t find them. I just think we’ve played well in the games.
"So, if the midfield haven’t scored, but defenders have, there’s a plus. Next week it might not be them, it might be the midfield players. We work on it all the time, we’ll just see what happens.”
He says he’s delighted with the way his midfield is performing: "The goals when they come will just put the icing on top because I think they will the way we’re playing.
"I think they’ve played really well. I think Tunners has come in and has been really outstanding.
"I think Tabby’s been unlucky because I don’t think he did a great deal wrong, in fact he’s one of the midfield players who has scored. But I needed to change it.
"I think that Skusey and Luke Hyam have been as good as anybody. Those two together have been a really good partnership.
"We all knew about Luke Hyam because he was here last year and he impressed everybody. I think Cole Skuse has been a real hit with everybody, he’s a really good player.”