Stephen Hunt has finally made his first start of the season and admits he would ideally like to clock up several more on the trot.

The experienced Republic of Ireland international was unable to start the season because of injury but once he had attained the required level of fitness manager Mick McCarthy decided he was worthy of a place in the line-up for the recent home draw with Blackburn.

Although he proved his fitness by only making way for substitute Darren Ambrose in the 89th minute of that game, he did not feature in the 3-1 defeat at Cardiff three days later and was only given a brief appearance from the bench five minutes from the end of last week’s clash with Huddersfield at Portman Road.

Hunt, 33, said: “I wasn’t surprised to start against Blackburn because I knew Murph was injured and that meant someone had to play. You always try to get inside the manager’s head and I thought I had a chance so it was just a question of making sure I prepared myself correctly.”

Unfortunately for all concerned Town had to make do with one point from his comeback game because Ben Marshall rescued a point for the visitors with a late freekick, cancelling out a similar earlier effort from David McGoldrick.

Hunt featured in a different role, adding: “I was in a three up front. We simplified it a little bit more in the second half, which helped me. In the first half, while they were rotating, the other lads were pretty much up and down, straight line, in the hole kind of players.

“I thought I got better as the game went on but it was just unfortunate that they scored in the last minute, which obviously came from me to a certain degree. It was a quarter my fault, as the gaffer likes to say, and you have to take responsibility.

“It has probably been the case for a lot of the late goals we have conceded — little mistakes, not glaring errors, somewhere along the line — and if we could have tightened that up I’m sure we would be in a better position than we are now.

“I think it’s a bit of adrenaline and experience that gets you through the first game back but I’m itching to keep going and I would love a run in the team. I also want to score some goals this year because I normally have a decent return and last year was very frustrating not to have any.”

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