They have known each other since their primary school days in their native Nottingham but Town duo David McGoldrick and Leon Best are still waiting to feature alongside one other in manager Mick McCarthy’s starting line-up.
McGoldrick knows better than to take anything for granted with fellow strikers Freddie Sears, Luke Varney and Brett Pitman, currently injured, also in contention alongside newcomer Best for places in the first team.
Asked what it was like to be reunited with his long-term friend and colleague, McGoldrick laughed: "It’s been a nightmare, the bloke’s a lunatic. I’ve known him for years, since I was only eight, and he’s a good lad who all the lads in the dressing room have taken to.
"He’s a good player as well but I think he needs a goal to get himself going. In terms of his hold-up play he’s one of the strongest I’ve played with and he’s got the tricks as well. A goal will get him going and then the fans will see the best of him.”
Has he changed much over the years? McGoldrick added: "He hasn’t matured and outside of football he’s still doing some of the silly things he did back then.
"We went to Southampton together and there was me, him, Gareth Bale, Adam Lallana, Theo Walcott and Nathan Dyer, who all came through.
"He was a bit raw back then but you can see his technical ability is much better now. There are plenty of stories to tell but I can’t repeat them and will keep them to myself.”
The pair were strike partners in the Southampton youth team and both had impressive scoring records, although they were on the losing side in the FA Youth Cup final in 2005 when Ed Upson’s goal in the second leg at Portman Road saw Town capture the trophy for only the third time in their history.
McGoldrick remembered: "Yes, we lost over two games to Ipswich but we were good together and scored a lot of goals between us.
"That doesn’t mean to say we are going to start alongside each other here because there’s Searsy, Pits and Varns and there can be a lot of good pairings.
"That was in the past, me and Besty, but if the manager went for us as a partnership now I’m sure I could link well with him.
"But I linked well with Searsy at the weekend — he runs in behind a lot and I like to drop and play through.
"He plays on the last defender’s shoulder and it’s the same with Varns, who stretches defences a lot.
"Pits is coming back as well from injury so there are plenty of combinations that can contribute. It hasn’t happened yet where all the strikers are scoring loads of goals but that time will come.
"I like to come deep and help the boys in midfield by playing forward and setting up moves.
"I know we sometimes have to stretch the opposition and go in behind, which every striker has to do. That’s where goals will come from but I think I can also get goals from dropping and linking play as well.”
After today’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday there will be another international break before Town return to action in a live-on-Sky home clash with Nottingham Forest in two weeks’ time — and that’s a game McGoldrick definitely doesn’t want to miss.
He said: "Forest are my club, the one I supported as a boy. I’m a Nottingham boy but I didn’t have the best of times there.
"You can make excuses and say this or that manager didn’t play me but as a player I think you should have to hold your own hands up and I admit I wasn’t good enough.
"I don’t think I have anything to prove, like scoring five goals against them for example. I’ve just got to play my own game.
"Since I left there I’ve become a much better player and shown what I can do, and I think the people at Forest all know what a player I should have been when I was there.”