Striker Aaron Drinan was delighted to score his first competitive goal for the Blues in yesterday’s 1-1 draw at Crewe.
Drinan, who the Blues signed from Waterford in his native Ireland in January 2018, broke into the the first team in pre-season and netted twice in the friendly at Colchester.
The Cork-born frontman made his senior Blues debut on the opening day of the season in the Carabao Cup tie against Bristol Rovers but suffered a thigh injury the following week in the first League One game against Wigan which saw him miss the next two months of the season.
He has now made six starts and six sub appearances but until Saturday was still waiting for his first competitive goal, although had found the net during his spells on loan with Sutton United, back at Waterford, Ayr United and at GAIS in Sweden.
"I just kept doing what I was doing and I always knew that the goal would eventually come, always do your own thing and always back yourself and it just came today, so I’m absolutely buzzing,” he said.
"The first one is probably always the hardest, obviously as a striker you’re judged on scoring goals, so it’s something I’m wanting to add to my game a lot more. It’s good to get off the mark.
"As we were 1-0 down and were looking for that goal, it probably makes it that bit more meaningful to score.
"We’re just looking to build on that point now and are aiming to three points next week and go on a run.
"It’s good that the league’s so tight and a couple of wins can take you up the table.”
Drinan has been unlucky not to find the net previously, particularly in the last away trip to Burton when he hit the bar and saw another effort kept out by the home keeper.
"To be fair, I think in the last couple of games I’ve been making an impact and obviously that was the missing piece to the jigsaw,” he reflected.
"Everywhere I’ve been on loan, every part of my game I think has been good and just getting a couple of goals finishes it off nicely. I’m just looking to build on that with a couple more goals and keep helping the team.”
Drinan knows he has a chance to secure a place in the side with Oli Hawkins out having undergone knee surgery and Kayden Jackson suspended for two more matches following his red card on Tuesday.
"If I just keep going, just try hard to help the team, score as many goals as I can and hopefully the rewards will come,” he said.
"Goals win games, obviously we’re all trying to score. We’ll all just keep going and everything will fall for us all eventually.”
Turning to Saturday’s result, the 22-year-old thought the Blues deserved more than the point: "I think we probably should have won that game, to be fair.
"I think we did a lot more on the ball than they did. When going forward we looked a bit more dangerous than they did, so I think we probably should have got the three points.”
He felt Town might well have won the match had they played the final minutes with their full complement rather than having had Teddy Bishop red-carded for a second bookable offence on 82.
"When you’ve scored, momentum is all your way and the sending off doesn’t help,” he said.
"The same against Sunderland, we went down to 10 men and stuck at the game and probably should have got something there. If we had 11 men out there [against Crewe], we definitely would have given in a nice go.”
Rather than celebrating his goal Drinan spent the moments after finding the net tending an injury, however, he says it was nothing serious.
"Just a dead leg," he said. "I got absolutely smashed, but as long as it went in, I don’t mind.”
And, having scored his first goal, he says he’s looking to start when the Blues host Blackpool next Saturday: "Hopefully, every player wants to start games, so we’ll wait and see.”