Town striker George Hirst says he has had to ‘raise his level’ this season in order to compete with fellow centre-forward and Blues top scorer Liam Delap.
Hirst has predominantly been limited to substitute appearances in the Premier League so far this term with 18 of his 19 top-flight appearances coming off the bench due to the consistent form of Delap, who has netted 12 goals since his summer arrival from Manchester City.
The only league game in which Hirst started came at Brentford back in October, a clash in which he would ultimately score his first Premier League goal and lay on an assist.
While acknowledging the season Delap is having in his position, Hirst refuses to be content with a place on the bench, insisting that it is providing him with more hunger on the training field.
"I’d say it’s never acceptance because if you sit there and accept it you’ve got no chance of ever getting in the team,” he said. "Liam’s been doing incredibly well and scoring a lot of goals.
"It’s meant I’ve had to raise my level to keep pushing him and give myself the best chance of giving the gaffer a decision to make. I’m going to keep doing that right until the very end.
"No-one likes not playing and I feel like I can help the team in more ways than one, it’s about me going out there every day in training working hard and doing everything I can to get on the pitch as much as possible.”
Under the Premier League microscope, Delap has caught the eye of many of the country’s top clubs and has been consistently praised for his form in what is his debut season at the level.
Many have reeled off running power and physicality as some of Delap’s key attributes that has seen the striker been touted as a future successor to England captain Harry Kane.
Hirst has had the chance to work alongside Delap for the last few months and discussed the types of traits that he has helped develop in his own game as a result.
"We’re slightly different players in the strengths we have,” he said. "I’d be naive to not look at some of the things he’s doing and trying to incorporate that into my game, but ultimately I’ve still been focusing on what I’m good at.
"I know what I bring to the team and it’s about polishing those details as opposed to trying to do things that aren’t me. I know what I’m good at and I know what got me to the position I’m in where I can fight for that spot, it’s just about going out there every day and doing it clean.
"If there are little bits I can take from Liam, which there definitely has been this season, then going out and trying it on the training pitch and seeing whether that’s for me or not.”
Across all competitions this season, Hirst has started three times and has found the net in all three, while also notching his fourth of the season off the bench against Nottingham Forest last month.
Asked how pleased he was with his own season so far, the Scotland international said: "Every time I’m on the pitch I’m trying to score a goal. The more minutes I get, the more chance of me scoring but with the minutes I’ve had it’s been difficult.
"Liam’s been doing incredibly well and I’m old enough to understand that now. I would still like to be playing more, if anyone was sat up here they’d probably say the same thing and if they didn’t they’d be lying.
"To get four goals is something that is good, I could have had a couple more but hopefully I’m saving them for the rest of the season. If I don’t score any more and we stay up then that’s fine by me,” Hirst said speaking ahead of the weekend defeat to Wolves.
On confidence, the 26-year-old added: "It’s not something that I struggle with, to be honest. It’s something that I’ve been pretty good at over the last couple of years, it was something I worked pretty hard on with myself.
"You’re not going to play every game sometimes and for whatever reason you might not get as many minutes as you like. It’s just about not beating yourself up, it’s a game of opinions and I know what I can give to the team and I know the boss knows that. It’s tough enough for him to have to make those decisions, he’s got a squad of 26 lads who he can only pick 11 on a matchday and I understand that.
"I just see it as a challenge, if I’m not in the team then it’s no good me pointing fingers. I need to train better, have more impact when I do come on the pitch and if we’re trying to stay in the game I need to come on and secure the ball better.
"The first person I look at is myself, if I can keep going forward with that then I put myself in a position where I’m not going to get too disheartened by things and I’m just going to keep improving.”
While playing the impact role as a substitute is a something that is new to Hirst and a role he is willing to play, there is little doubt as to the position he would rather be in.
"I’d rather get better at being a starter,” he said. "It’s just a maturity thing if anything, it’s understanding that being a striker it would be very easy to come on the pitch and think I’ve got 15 minutes now and I need to score a goal, sometimes it’s just not like that.
"The Bournemouth game is a great example of that, my first thought when I’m coming on the pitch isn’t I need to score a goal, it’s that we’re under a little bit of pressure and when the ball comes up to me I have to get hold of it, buy a foul or get us up the pitch into a position where I can think about goals, getting in the box and making myself a threat again.
"It’s definitely not trying to improve on being a sub too much but it’s something you realise as you get older that it is team first and you’re just trying to give whatever the game needs at that particular moment.”