Luke Hyam and his midfield colleagues are out to boost their goals output in the second half of the season and boost Town’s promotion challenge.

Hyam has netted just once in 22 Championship starts this season but team-mates Cole Skuse (25) and on-loan Ryan Tunnicliffe (20) have both drawn a complete blank so far.

The contribution from the middle of the park looks a little healthier when you add Paul Anderson’s two goals - although his first in the 3-0 home victory over Millwall probably should have gone down as a Mark Beevers own goal - and the one Jay Tabb scored on the opening day of the season at Reading.

But Hyam admitted: “All the midfield players — me, Tunners, Skusey, Ando, Tabby — know we should contribute more goals and that’s something we are all looking to do. We are putting in the work on the training pitch to improve in that area.”

Despite a defeat last time out to QPR, which ended an eight-game unbeaten league run that had catapulted them into the top six, Hyam is convinced Town can more than recover in the months ahead.

He added: “We’re still ninth and the play-offs are more than achievable. We’ve already been in the top six so we just need to keep pushing on. Saturday at Millwall is such a big game and if we get the right result we will be starting to look up the table again.

“I’ve played at The Den a couple of times and I know to expect a fair bit of stick from their fans. But you get that at any of the away grounds and overall I think it’s a nice ground to play at.

“I’ve no idea how we will line up and I don’t think it matters. We can switch between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 but whatever formation we play we are always looking to do our best and get a result.”

The game in South London will see Hyam in direct competition to his former Town team-mate Liam Trotter, also a former pupil of Northgate High School.

Hyam added: “I see Liam when he comes back to Ipswich. He’s done really well at Millwall and kicked on from where he was here. I’m really pleased for him.

“We went to the same school and I still keep in touch with Simon Smith, who was my PE teacher. I also know people in town who Liam is friends with. I speak to him when I see him and he’s a bit of an inspiration to me.

“We didn’t play against each other much when we were young but we have done in the reserves and obviously when Ipswich have played against Millwall before.”

Photo: Action Images

Jimmy86 added 06:12 - Jan 18 This without a shadow of a doubt is our biggest problem. Our back four has scored more goals than our midfield and is def an area we need to improve on. I remember under Royle when Tommy Miller scored 15 from midfield!!! fair enough he was the penalty taker, but I dont remember him ever missing from the spot. How we could do with someone like miller in our midfield now

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bluefeast added 07:42 - Jan 18 The lad from Chelsea who was at Watford last year has gone to Middlesborough for that very reason. Thats the kind of player we needed in order to add goals. However our squad is tight nit and work so hard for each other , i bet one of them gets a goal today.
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bluefeast added 07:46 - Jan 18 Millwall scouting report was all about our weak right side. Ollie will set his team up to exploit that.The overworked Chambers is in for 90 mins of defensive duty. If our right back had attacking intent there would be caution by the opposition . Not Chambers fault who i think has a fantastic attitude . But we have a square peg in a round hole. Something MM identified as an issue when he arrived as Edwards was playing there. Hope we get a result but i fear our team wont cause enough issues for the hyped up ollie brigade.

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bluelodgeblue added 09:50 - Jan 18 I just wish players would stop talking themselves up because most of them fail dismally! Just concentrate on the match in hand!
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megamoth added 09:53 - Jan 18 Nice rhetoric from Luke but we've heard it all before. I remember Paul Mason scoring about 15 goals in 1997/98 I think. Seems like such a long time ago.
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TimmyH added 10:53 - Jan 18 Well they couldn't hardly score less! Hyam x1 Tabb x1 Anderson x1 Taylor x1 Tunnicliffe zilch Skuse zilch Hunt zilch Wordsworth zilch Edwards zilch = pretty god dam poor!
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Jimmy86 added 10:56 - Jan 18 TimmyH what makes it even more worse is i dont think they include Taylor as a midfielder, even though I think he more a wide player, or a player just off the main striker than an out and out striker
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boysinblue added 11:57 - Jan 18 Right words from Lukey boi, but him and Skuse are both holding midfielders really. I think if we want more goals from midfield then they can't both start every game. And i'd certainly choose Skuse over Hyam. Give Wordsworth a chance when he's back from illness, he hasn't really been given the opportunities when he's been fit.
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