Town boss Mick McCarthy is pleased to see strikers Brett Pitman, Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears battling it out to be the Blues’ top scorer with all three of them currently on six league goals. Pitman is currently one ahead overall having netted a seventh in the Capital One Cup.
McCarthy says competition comes naturally to players and managers don’t need to do anything to encourage it: "They do compete against each other. I know as a player, I’m playing at centre-half and if they keep bringing centre-halves in, they’re going to have to knock me down and kill me to get in my position.
"That’s me competing against them. Well, by nature footballers are competitive, they’re in the position they’re in because they’re very competitive, all of them.
"They’ll want to finish leading goalscorer. Me highlighting it to them isn’t going to make any difference.
"Sometimes highlighting it can put a bit more pressure on them. They’re all playing well, they’re all enjoying it, they’re all scoring goals, just let them carry on doing what they’re doing. You tend to start tinkering with it when they’re not doing that.”
He added: "I can’t imagine any of them would want to finish second or third. But I’m sure if they finish third on 16 or 18 goals it’ll be a nice touch for all of us.
"We’ve got threats at the minute, they’re all very, very capable strikers and we’re a threat to anybody. It’s great that they’re spreading them out as well. Let’s hope that continues.”
While David McGoldrick continues to be frustrated by injuries and is facing another lengthy spell on the sidelines having suffered a torn hamstring - after scoring three goals earlier in the season - Luke Varney is fit again and could get his chance as a sub today against Derby, one of his old clubs, having signed a contract until the end of the season yesterday.
"He’s on the bench,” McCarthy confirmed regarding the 33-year-old, who has played the first half of the last two U21s matches.
"He’s been training with us every day,” the Blues boss continued. "He’s fine, he looks in really good shape. He’s a naturally fit lad anyway.
"[Despite his age], he’s telling me he’s got another five years left! I’m delighted that we’ve got him around, he’ll really add to the squad in terms of his ability and his personality. He’s a great lad.
"He’s got that ability that he can play as any of the roles of we play two up front and if we decide to play a three he can play wide either side or up front on his own. There’s a bit of versatility about him, which is great to have.”