Tom Lawrence has not only netted some magnificent goals this season, he believes he has also learned an important lesson.
The Leicester loanee has been an outstanding success since arriving at Portman Road in August, shooting to the top of the scoring charts with 10 goals so far.
But a booking at Brighton last month, his 10th of the season, triggered a two-game suspension that saw him sit out the home clash with Leeds and the East Anglian derby trip to Norwich, both of which ended in 1-1 draws.
A number of the yellow cards collected by the one-time Manchester United youngster were for dissent, mainly for comments to referees, and he admitted: "The booking at Brighton was a hard one to take. But it was probably self-inflicted so I can’t have too many complaints.
"It’s hard watching games from the sidelines. But I think that’s the first ban I’ve had in my career, so I’ll learn from it and won’t do it again. The gaffer and I had a chat about it and we speak quite a lot anyway. It’s all good.
"I would agree that I’m a bit of a fiery character. I like getting heated up a bit and I like to think it helps me to play better. Hopefully I can carry on playing well but without the bookings.”
Lawrence has been Town’s standout attacking player this season, scoring eight Championship goals and a further two in the FA Cup against Lincoln, including some spectacular strikes to suggest he is staging his very own Goal of the Season competition.
But he insisted: "Off the top of my head I can’t pick one goal ahead of the others. It’s just nice to score goals and the fact that a few have been pretty special makes it all the better.
"They all count and I’ll take a tap-in all day long — but if they keep flying in I won’t have any problems with that either.”
Lawrence, who has been fighting to overcome an ankle injury, returned to action in last weekend’s 1-1 home draw with Brentford and had no complaints about being withdrawn in the 81st minute for striker Kieffer Moore.
He added: "I think the suspension, if I can say it, came at a good time. I think my ankle injury would have been a lot worse if I’d carried on. I’ve had a few injections in it now and it’s getting back to 100 per cent.
"In my first game back I felt a little bit rusty. I was goosed when I came off but it was more to do with my performance and the way we were playing. Nothing had fallen for me in the game and it was the right time to bring me off.
"It was my first game back and to be honest I was knackered so the manager made a good decision there.
"On Tuesday night against Wolves I felt I was back to my best, feeling sharp again. Hopefully it will be the same at Barnsley on Saturday and I will be able to add to my goal tally.”
Town increased their unbeaten run to seven games with the midweek goalless draw against Wolves, who had lost all of their previous six games in all competitions, and a section of the crowd made their disappointment clear with a chorus of boos at the final whistle.
Lawrence echoed the after-match comments of boss Mick McCarthy when he said: "It was a difficult game. Wolves are a lot better than where they are in the table at the minute.
"They played some good football and we had chances in the game but just couldn’t quite get the win in the end.”