Town striker Daryl Murphy is on a double mission to steer the team to promotion and post his best-ever goal haul in a season.
The 30-year-old Irishman took his tally for the current campaign to seven when he netted in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Bournemouth.
Murphy, who had three loan spells at Portman Road before signing a permanent two-year deal in the summer following his release by Scottish champions Celtic, has never scored more than 10 goals in any season.
That was in the 2006/07 season, his second with Sunderland after a certain Mick McCarthy forked out £100,000 to sign him from Waterford, and his goals helped the Black Cats to clinch the Championship title.
Murphy netted seven times for Town last season, in a total of 39 league appearances, so to have already matched that tally at the halfway point of the current campaign rates as quite a feat.
He said: "It’s decent enough, although I think I should have a few more goals based on the chances I have had. But I can’t be too disappointed with it and hopefully there are more goals and wins for the team to come.
"I think the fact that I’m on a permanent deal at the club is a big help. It’s just the fact that I’m here and I know I’m not going back anywhere else. I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen next year or stuff like that.
"I can concentrate mainly on Ipswich Town, focus on the games we have coming up and try to do as well as I can. There will be plenty of hard games but we have shown what we can do in the first half of the season and have nothing to fear.
"It was good to get a goal at Bournemouth and it was a hard-fought point for us. It was a tough game and they are one of the best sides we have played against, to be honest with you.
"Football-wise they were very good and they’ve got some very good individual players. They made it hard for us but I think a point was a good result for us.”