David McGoldrick has admitted he is revelling in his role as a striker alongside Freddie Sears as Town prepare to face play-off chasing Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday in their final home game of the current campaign.
The pair have claimed six goals between them in Town’s last five games, McGoldrick being rested and Sears only coming off the bench five minutes from the end of last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at rock-bottom Rotherham as boss Mick McCarthy rang the changes in order to allow several fringe players a rare outing.
McGoldrick said: "I like playing with Freddie. He loves running in behind and when I get the ball to my feet that’s always an option for me. Freddie can cause problems — you can play it to his feet, he has a good touch and a good brain, even if he doesn’t act like it off the pitch sometimes!
"He’s a good player and he scores goals. He had a little drought when he didn’t score for a bit but his work-rate and ethic is always top-class and now he is going back to the Freddie he was when he first came here.
"When he’s one-on-one with the keeper you expect him to score and he’s doing that, so long may it continue.”
McGoldrick also believes he is benefiting from being cast a striker in McCarthy’s starting line-up and agreed that on occasions in the past he was perhaps guilty of dropping too deep into the wrong areas.
"I think that’s been the case sometimes,” he admitted. "I think a lot of the lads want me to create, as well as score, but I don’t think you can do both. I think sometimes I suffer from dropping deep and trying to make things happen.
"When things aren’t going too well and you are losing you want to get the game by the scruff of the neck and be the man who goes and makes things happen.
"But maybe that means I am dropping too deep and I’m not in the box when I should be.
"I think I’ve sacrificed that in the past couple of games. I’ve just been playing as a striker and I’ve been getting my rewards from it.
"We’re scoring goals and we’ve been winning so I don’t think I’ll be dropping back any time soon.”
McGoldrick has hit plenty of spectacular, long-range goals in his time at Portman Road but his most recent one was completely different — a simple tap-in at the back post after partner Sears found him with a pass as Town carved open the Newcastle defence in a 3-1 Easter Monday success.
He added: "At the end of the day a goal’s a goal but I maybe took my eye off that a little bit and got drawn to being the creator and the scorer. I don’t think you can do both — unless you’re Messi!
"I’ve tried to stop coming back and trying to be the number 10, for example. Wardy’s playing really, really well and doing that at the minute.
"I’ve been getting my rewards from staying up front, and scored a couple of tap-ins. I got the one against Wigan as well — that was in the box — and I want more goals like that.
"I’m not bothered if they are 30-yarders or two-yarders — all that matters is that it’s my name on the scoresheet.”
McGoldrick paid tribute to his midfield colleagues, adding: "When the midfielders have the ball you want them to make forward passes. With the likes of Emyr [Huws], Skusey [Cole Skuse] and Wardy [Grant Ward] in the middle I know that if I make a run they can probably find me and that helps.
"If Lozzer [Tom Lawrence] is playing he’s got a good through ball or long ball on him as well.
"Searsy and me want to play off the shoulders of defenders, making it hard for them because no defender likes to be running back towards their own goal.
"We’ve been doing that and it’s been working — so we’re going to continue doing it!”