Boss Mick McCarthy believes strike pair Daryl Murphy and David McGoldrick are well capable of reproducing the goalscoring form which took the Blues close to the play-offs last season. McGoldrick netted 16 times before his knee injury curtailed his 2013/14 in February, while Murphy scored 13.
Already this season McGoldrick has scored twice and Murphy three times and their manager expects plenty more between now and May.
"If they reproduce last season’s form they’ll get a good tally because they got a good tally last season,” he said.
"They play off each other particularly well and it was lovely to see them both get a goal on Saturday because centre forwards judge themselves on goals, so it was good that they both scored.”
He says Murphy, 31, is benefiting from being settled with the Blues: "I signed Murph at Sunderland [in 2005] and since then he’s always been on the move.
"He’s never had his feet planted or his bum in one chair for long enough. He was off to Celtic, then he was on loan here, he’s had four spells here now, three of them on loan.
"He loves it here, his family are settled and that really helps. He’s started the season well, so I’ve no reason to think he should do anything other than continue his form, he works hard at it in training.”
Did he expect Murphy to lash in his stunning goal late on against Brighton? "I was hoping he’d smack it in that far corner, but if you think I was thinking he would, you’d be much mistaken.
"It was a fabulous goal and somebody’s got to beat that for goal of the season at our club, we have the vote at the end of the season. That’s it now and if somebody beats it it’ll be a fabulous one.”
He believes Murphy has improved since he’s been working with assistant boss Terry Connor: "Without a doubt, all the strikers do. TC’s a top man, the best I’ve seen with strikers."
Meanwhile, he says 26-year-old McGoldrick, a £7 million Leicester target close to deadline day, is showing his best form having got over his injury: "I thought he was excellent against Brighton. He was gliding past people again and his touch was as good as it’s ever been.
"His fitness is there, he could have completed the game but I put Conor Sammon on for the last five or six minutes really just to make sure we kept hold of the ball and stopped them playing out and to add extra height to deal with corner kicks and freekicks. Didz is fine, he’s back at it.”
McCarthy is pleased that another of his strikers Frank Nouble is doing well while on loan at Coventry.
The 22-year-old is with the Sky Blues until January and has scored two goals in his first three games: "Absolutely, it’s great for him. It’s a good level, I knew he’d score goals in the League One. I’m delighted for him."