Assistant boss Terry Connor says Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s return from injury will help spur on David McGoldrick as he looks to become the first Town striker to score 20 league goals in a season since David Johnson in the 1999/00 promotion campaign.
With 16 Championship games remaining, McGoldrick is currently on 14 — plus two in the FA Cup — Johnson having hit 22 on the way to the play-offs which took the Blues into the Premier League.
Ebanks-Blake — who hit 23 and 25 league goals as he top scored in the Championship in the 2007/08 and 2008/09 seasons with Plymouth and Wolves - is back in the squad for today’s game against Blackpool having suffered a hamstring injury on his Town debut having signed a contract until the end of the season in December.
"Sylvan’s taken a little while,” Connor said. "When he first came in, he got injured against Preston in the cup and that set him back a little bit, but he’s now been out on the training ground for the best part of 10 days and, as you can imagine, he’s raring to go and wanting to contribute.
"That helps create that environment where David’s looking over his shoulder and thinking that if he wants to get to 20 goals, then he’s got to keep Sylvan out of the team. The same with Daryl Murphy, same with Frank Nouble and everyone else.
"There’s a nice little pool of strikers that we’ve got there and hopefully they’ll create enough pressure amongst themselves that they all keep doing well and scoring goals.”
Connor, who previously worked with Ebanks-Blake at Wolves, says the 27-year-old can’t wait to get his Town career up and running: "Sylvan’s a very good player, but a hungry [Sylvan], who’s ready to play, he’s invaluable really.
"He’s in the squad, he’s been brought here for a reason and he wants to start repaying that as soon as he possibly can. He wants to play, he wants to get back to scoring his goals and we think he can only benefit Ipswich Town.”
Meanwhile, Connor says he’s been pleased with new loan signing Paul Green since he joined up with the squad last week: "He’s been fantastic, he’s a good professional, his background tells you everything about Paul.
"We’ve just delighted to have him and Frazer Richardson at the club. They’re certainly lending their experience and their knowledge to the rest of the group.”