Freddie Sears is probably one of the front runners for Town’s Player of the Year accolade — despite a barren spell in front of goal that he is desperate to end at Birmingham tomorrow.
Bournemouth loanee Ryan Fraser is probably the leading contender for the award but Sears is one of several candidates looking to impress during the final 19 games of the league campaign as Mick McCarthy’s men set their sights firmly on emulating last term’s top-six finish.
Sears was quick off the mark this season, scoring four times in his first six games, but since then the goals have dried up — just two in his last 22 outings — although the former Colchester player is quick to point out that he has not been operating as an orthodox striker for most of that barren spell.
He said: "I’m a striker and I want to score goals, but at the minute I’m playing in a different role for the team.
"Not just scoring goals, but also creating them, is something I’d like to do, definitely.
"I’d like to be scoring more goals but if you look at the Championship’s top scorers, how many would Jordan Rhodes or Andre Gray score out wide?
"I’ve got six this season and that’s just two behind Murph. I still want to finish the season as top scorer if I can.
"I also want to contribute more assists as well but the most important thing is winning games.
"If I wasn’t scoring and we weren’t winning maybe I’d be thinking ‘Something’s not right here’ but I still feel as though I’m contributing to the team.
"The goals are being spread around a bit more than last season. Pits [Brett Pitman] has got seven in the league, Murph’s got eight in the league, I’ve got six, Ryan’s got a few and Chambo’s got a few.
"Last year Murph had the majority of the goals but now, as a team, we feel we can score more.
"But it’s always about winning and if you asked anyone in our dressing room they would take 1-0 wins, with a different player scoring every week — as long as it won us promotion.”
Sears has often been singled out for special praise by boss Mick McCarthy for his displays this season, his appetite for sheer hard graft and taking care of his defensive responsibilities catching the eye every bit as his good work going forward.
He added: "It was hard at the start because I wasn’t used to it but the gaffer told me what he wanted, how I could play it and how it could work to my strengths, and it’s been good.
"It’s not been a case of standing on the wing and not getting involved. I’ve played nearly all the games this season and feel like I’ve been involved and contributed in some way in pretty much all of them.”
Meanwhile, Sears is hopeful of remaining injury-free for the rest of the league campaign after being one of the Town players to play most often in the season so far.
He said: "Physically, I’m good. It’s that time of the year — it was a tough Christmas period and the boys were coming in knackered the day after games because we were playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday.
"The gaffer’s great with that and we had a bit of time off after the game at Burnley and then again on Tuesday for the game at Portsmouth, which was down to the gaffer and we have to respect that.”