Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s always confident that his Town side will be able find a goal from somewhere even when they’re not at their best.
The Blues go into today’s game at Bolton having netted in each of their last 16 matches, Town’s longest unbroken scoring streak since since Joe Royle's team set a club record of 31 games between March and November 2004. The last time Town failed to score was the Norwich game back on August 23rd.
"Even if we’re not playing well, we will get a set piece, we will get a chance from something," McCarthy said
"I don’t think there’s been a game, even against Norwich, which was probably one of the games when we had fewer chances, we still had chances in the game. I don’t ever go through a game thinking ‘Where are we going to get one from?’.”
He added: "It’s just the midfield players we’re not getting goals from but maybe they’ve been the suppliers of them.
"The lads at the back are getting them and if you look back, I keep referring to Burnley, Danny Ings and Sam Vokes scored all the goals for them. I don’t know how many goals came from everybody else. It doesn’t really matter, as long as you get enough of them.”
He says he’s not overly concerned by the current lack of goals from midfield, the Blues engine room having managed only three between them so far with Teddy Bishop, Jonny Williams and Luke Hyam having grabbed one each.
"They’re saving them up for the second half of the season!” he joked. "They’re going to get loads.
"I would love them to be getting more. But if nobody was scoring then and we were down the bottom of the league [it would be more of a concern]. I think there’s improvement in them and hopefully we’ll get some goals from midfield.
"It’s not that we don’t work at it and don’t try at it, but at the moment we’re not that far behind, I think Derby are one of the top scorers and we’re not that far behind them.
"I think you take what you get and just continue to work and hope that that comes along as well. I’m certainly not sat here worrying about them not scoring.”
He hopes opposition managers will be scratching their heads looking for ways to nullify Town’s goalscoring threat when assessing the Blues’ previous performances as they prepare for games.
"I hope we cause them problems when they’re looking at it,” he said. "We’re a team that’s on form, you wouldn’t have to look at it, you just know we’re going to be a tough proposition, that you’re going to get a difficult game.
"But then, when they start looking at us, I’d like to think that they think they go ‘Well, the front two are certainly a threat’ and look at it and think about how they’re going to deal with it. I hope so and I’m sure they are doing, just like we do with other teams.”
He says new Bolton manager Neil Lennon has quickly made an impression since taking over in October and that his side will be growing in confidence.
"The shape of the team is suiting them,” he continued. "He’s got them organised in the way he wants them to play, not that I’m saying they weren’t organised before because that would be remiss of me.
"But he’s got a couple of results and suddenly they’ve started believing again. Whereas it was always win one, lose one, draw one, win one, now they’re unbeaten in five.”