Boss Mick McCarthy says Daryl Murphy isn't the only striker to have improved relatively late on in his career. The 31-year-old is currently enjoying his best ever season, having scored 17 goals, more than anyone else in the Championship.
"I think Rickie Lambert ended up being a better player the older he’s got," McCarthy said. "And I think Grant Holt ended up being a better player the older he got, although they’ve always scored goals at lower levels the pair of them.
"Whatever it is that sparks it off, I don’t know. Murph’s always had that basic ability to be a real handful through his own ability, his touch, his pace, his power, his shooting. But he’s improved all that and [his work on the training field with] Terry [Connor] has been significant in that progress, I think.”
McCarthy remembers the first time he saw Murphy in action live for Waterford United while Sunderland manager 10 years ago, not long after the striker’s first trial spell with Town had been cut short due to injury.
"I watched him at the college, at UCD I think it was,” he recalled. "My impressions were enough to pay £100,000 for him.
"It was just that he had something. He’d got good pace, he’s a good size, he had a good touch in that league.
"I don't think he had the best game that night, I can’t remember that he was rampaging about.
"But we’d had him watched, other people had watched him, of course, it wasn’t just based on that.
"I thought he had a chance of being a player, that's what it was. And it's turned out he's proved me right, one of those ones where you get proved right. It’s nice.”
He says when players hit form as Murphy has this season, there’s no telling precisely why it’s happened: "When you’re losing and it’s going wrong, you can’t see a way out and you don’t know how it’s going to go and suddenly it turns around.
"I think it’s a bit like that with goalscorers. You get in a rich vein of form, but you’ve no idea where it’s come from.
"When you’re playing well, you just go with the flow. It’s great when you’re playing well.
"And that’s as a centre-half as well. When things are going for you, you intercept things, you win headers, your passes go to the feet of your own players, you don’t make any mistakes.
"All you do is you enjoy the ride when it’s going like that. And when it’s going wrong everybody can tell you why. Except one person, and that’s you.
"You analyse everything and try and find out. Sometimes, for a striker, it takes a goal going in off the back of his head or his backside or for a defender to get a clean sheet and just not make a mistake on a day and you get back on a roll and start playing again.”
McCarthy says Murphy has benefited from playing alongside David McGoldrick: "They’re both prepared to work really hard, they’ve got a good link-up between the two of them, and they’re a good focal point for us to play off.
"They’re different players, Didz can drop in and link the play up, they’re just a good partnership and good players individually. And they’ve formed a partnership over 18 months.”
Could the Town duo replicate that partnership for Ireland on a regular basis? "That’s Martin’s decision, not mine.”