Town striker Frank Nouble is reluctant to discuss a training ground confrontation with manager Mick McCarthy that occurred the day before he scored his first goal of the season.
It was McCarthy who revealed the spat between the pair, which took place little more than 24 hours prior to his key contribution in the 3-2 win at Blackpool, the club’s first away success of the current campaign.
McCarthy said he had been forced to have "a proper snarl” at Nouble, who has responded by scoring twice in four games — three of them wins — to nudge Town closer to the Championship play-off places.
Nouble, 22, said today: "On training on that Friday there was just a disagreement on the pitch. I look back on it now and think that was good for me. It fired me up to do well in the game and I went on and scored.
"It doesn’t really matter now what happened then because we’re doing well now and it’s all good.
"It was definitely nothing to do with me not training hard enough, it was just a decision in training that fired me up a bit. I think he loved it really, the passion I was showing. It wasn’t really a disagreement, just a talking-to.
"I was just trying to get in the team. That’s what we all do in training. If we don’t do that we’re probably not in the right business.”
Nouble came on at half-time at Bloomfield Road and scored, then he was a used substitute against both Leicester and Charlton before starting in the 3-1 midweek home win over Blackburn.
His goal four minutes from the end of Tuesday’s game was reminiscent of one he scored in the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace towards the end of last season.
Some strikers may have regarded it as a lost cause but Nouble’s ability to strike fear into opposition goalkeepers was amply illustrated on both occasions.
The former Wolves striker said: "I’ll take 10 of them every year. One thing I’ll always do is keep running. The keeper gets scared. They’re the least good players on the ball and if you press them they are always likely to make a mistake.
"I don’t know what goes through their mind when I’m chasing the ball down. They probably see a 6ft 3in guy running at them and don’t fancy it.
"Even in training Loachy and Gerks hate me. I’m always at their feet ready to pounce.”
Nouble has now made 10 senior starts, to go with a further 24 as a substitute, and will be hoping to feature in McCarthy’s line-up for Saturday’s home clash with Huddersfield.
But he added: "It’s up to the manager who he picks and he can do what he wants. It was disappointing not to start against Leicester after coming on and doing well against Blackpool but that’s forgotten about now. We’ve won the last two games and that’s all that matters really.
"I just want to get longer than the 10 or 20 minutes I’ve been getting. Coming on can be hard. People will say you’ve got to make a difference, but you might be coming on and helping the team defend. Hopefully I took my chance on Tuesday.
"I feel if he keeps me on and lets me get into the game he will get more from me. It’s like any player, but particularly when you are a striker you are hoping for a chance to nick something for the team. I will keep running all day looking for that chance.
"I’ve just got to keep going and make sure I progress every. If I get a run of games, I know in myself that I’ll come good. Hopefully I can get that.”