Town striker Daryl Murphy has spoken of his frustration at still waiting to score his first goal of the current campaign, a run in sharp contrast to last season when he was the 27-goal leading Championship marksman.
At the same stage a year ago Murphy had three goals to his name but he remains confident of soon getting off the mark and has even set himself an end-of-season target of 20, such is his confidence that he is not at risk of being labelled a one-season wonder.
Murphy, 32, said: "I’ve been saying to the lads that last season they would go in off my knee or some other part of my body — and they were just going in for me everywhere. This year, not so much, but it’ll come as long as I get chances and I get into the right areas.
"I know the goals will come and it doesn’t have to be a spectacular strike to get me going. I really don’t mind what kind of goal it is; it can go in off any part of my body. But when the first one goes in I know the rest will come.
"It gets easier to deal with the situation when you are an experienced player. Before I would have dwelled on it too much and I’d have tried too hard to score.
"I believe the goals will come sooner, rather than later, and it’s just a case of making sure I’m in the right place when the opportunities do come along.
"I’m still working hard in training on my finishing, like I did throughout last season, and that’s not going to change this year. As long as I keep working hard to get into the right positions then I’ll score goals.”
Because he was on international duty for the Republic of Ireland last summer he was granted extended leave by Town boss Mick McCarthy and returned for pre-season training a fortnight later than the bulk of the group.
He added: "It makes it harder to hit the ground running when you’ve had an extended break, tougher than in previous years, because of the rest issue and the games I played.
"But you just need to get on with it. You can’t complain about not having much of a break when you’re a footballer.
"We know we don’t get much of a break when we’re playing so regularly during the season and I’m certainly not going to complain about playing for my country.
"I was probably playing catch-up for a few weeks but I feel good now and I haven’t missed any training sessions in a while.
"I feel fine now but it did take me a while to get back up to speed. I feel good and I’ve not missed any training sessions of late, which is good as well.”
Murphy clocked up 57 games for club and country last season and said: "It was a long old season but I got my break. The gaffer gave me extra time off so there was no problem with that.
"I rested up and came back but I was unfortunate to pick up a little injury when I started playing. Those things happen in football — you’re always going to have knocks and it’s just how you react to it and get on with it.”