Cole Skuse may continue to be an unsung here in the Town ranks but he has enjoyed a couple of rare moments in the limelight recently.
After being nominated for the Championship’s player of the month accolade for April the midfielder scooped the John Kerridge prize at the club’s recent awards evening — in effect the manager’s Player of the Year choice.
Boss Mick McCarthy spoke in glowing terms about the player he signed two years ago after his contract at first club Bristol City had ended and Skuse said: "It was nice. To receive the manager’s Player of Year award was a massive honour.
"He gave a nice little speech beforehand so he had noticed my consistency and what I do for the side.
"It’s always nice to hear that and especially from a manager like Mick McCarthy. The rest of the players have given me a bit of stick — it started about five or 10 minutes after I was given the award when they got a group chat going.”
Skuse, who scored his first Town goal in the side’s 3-1 home win over Cardiff, was nominated along with eventual winner Tom Ince (Derby), Benik Afobe (Wolves) and Adlene Guedioura (Watford) for the April Player of the Month prize.
He added: "I feel as if I’ve had a consistent season but it’s amazing what a goal can do for you, I guess. One goal and you get nominated for April’s player of the month — I should score more. It was flattering, it was nice and I didn’t know about it until a friend of mine rang me to tell me.
"I didn’t pay too much attention to be honest but some of the lads had a great month. Tom Ince won it and had a great month, scoring goals with several assists, so it was good for him. For my part I was happy that the manager thought I was worthy of his award.
"I’m happy to take the praise and the adulation from the manager and players is good. It’s not something I aim to do when I go out onto the pitch, I’m just concentrating on doing the job that the manager and TC have asked me to do. It has been noticed in places over the past few weeks but I’m not overly fussed by that.
"I never lost any sleep over not scoring for so long. It wasn’t as if I joined Ipswich on the back of a 25-goal season at Bristol City. It was nice to get the goal and yes, it was alright, but it hasn’t changed anything. The manager is not asking me to shoot more often or anything like that.
"We all set a target at the start of the season and mine was five, so I’m still a little bit short of that, but I’ve got a foot on the ladder.
"Five was a realistic target but I was going to go lower until the manager gave me an absolute bullet and said ‘The minimum you should get is five’.
"I should be getting more goals — I know that. I lost all sense of composure when I scored. I didn’t know where to go or what to do. James Pullen, our masseur, gave me loads of stick about not scoring so I ran to him and the kit man but I don’t think I’ll do much the next time.
"The manager asked me to do a job, to do certain things and it just so happened that the ball bounced nicely and I thought I’d have a go. If the same situation arises again I’ll be shooting again but he’s not purposely gone out of his way to tell me to shoot more often.”