Town’s 21-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy has revealed that he’ll be taking to the field wearing a mask to protect his broken nose when Reading are the visitors to Portman Road on Saturday.

The 31-year-old clashed heads with former Blues loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe as he nodded home Jay Tabb’s corner in the fifth minute at Craven Cottage and spent a lengthy spell off the pitch while the club's medican staff stopped his nose from bleeding and clicked it back into place.

Speaking in an interview with WLR FM back in his home town of Waterford, the striker confirmed that he’ll be OK to face the Royals.

“I’ll be fine for the Reading match, I think they’re looking at getting a mask made for me, so you might notice me on the pitch on Saturday!”

Murphy, named in this week's Football League Team of the Week, is the first Town striker to net 20 league goals in a season since David Johnson scored 22 in 1999/00 with no one having reached the milestone as quickly since Ray Crawford and Ted Phillips.

The Ireland international says it’s “an honour” to find himself in such illustrious company, but doesn’t expect to beat Phillips’s 1956/57 club record goals total.

“I think I’ve got a long way to go to beat Ted Phillips’s 41 in a season!” he added. “I think that might be just out of reach. But just to be in amongst those names is absolutely brilliant.”

But even if 41 might be too much of an ask, Murphy says he’s determined to get as many as possible during the remaining 15 games of the campaign.

“There’s no point in stopping now,” he said. “I might as well keep going and see how many I can reach and climb up the table a bit.”

Meanwhile, former Blue Jack Doherty, 20, has rejoined his former club Waterford United after spending the second half of the last Irish season at Limerick, following his release by the Blues.

You can hear the full interview with Daryl Murphy here.

Photo: Action Images

BYRNE_16 added 17:02 - Feb 17 Zorro......
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baldman added 17:14 - Feb 17 If you don't score another goal this season as far as I think you've been amazing great work and good luck
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ITFCFan365 added 17:15 - Feb 17 Fingers crossed that he doesn't have the same outcome of Torres or Chamakh!
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crossyIP2 added 17:19 - Feb 17 Legit superhero!
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Marcus added 17:25 - Feb 17 Hannibal Murphy in Silence of the Royals
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FenboyBlue added 18:04 - Feb 17 Spidermurph, Spidermurph Does whatever a Spidermurph does Can he score...lots of goals ? Yes he can..he's Spidermurph Look out, here comes Spidermurph
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therein61 added 18:06 - Feb 17 Having witnessed the scoring exploits of Ray Crawford and Ted Phillips (from the 2nd division to the wonderful championship win in 61/62) who absolutely scared defences to death!! we now have the masked assassin to take on the goal scoring burden this I feel is a clever ploy on behalf of the club because if Murph gets injured we can wheel out Ray or Ted in the mask and hoodwink the opposition!!!! seriously though what a great season you are having Murph keep banging em in and who knows where it could take us!!!!!!

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Stourbridgeblue added 18:24 - Feb 17 Planet Blue marketing opportunity?
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riley26 added 19:05 - Feb 17 Marcus, let's hope his goals see us finish above Derby... Silence of the Rams.
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Bluetone added 19:27 - Feb 17 So will the others in the team be calling him Kemo Sabe?
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blueboy1981 added 19:31 - Feb 17 ........... let's hope the 'Masked Raider' continues his raids on the opposition's goal, through til' the end of the season. Without his goals we would be running a bit lean to be truthful - desperately need a few (more) from midfield, but until then 'keep up the good work Murph'.
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Karlosfandangal added 20:26 - Feb 17 Am I right in thinking that Murphy has now hit the 50 mark for town ?
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warktheline added 20:51 - Feb 17 This season could, when reflecting, be the pinochle of his career. Hopefully his goals will continue til end of season. Some of his finishing has been effortless, to the point of looking simplistic! Much credit must go to TC. On a completely different subject, I've noticed Brentford have just shot themselves in the foot....strange days indeed, most peculiar mama!
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Garv added 21:21 - Feb 17 Would have been so much better had we been playing Derby eh Marcus?
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JimInGreensboro added 21:39 - Feb 17 The entire side should wear the same mask and confuse the buggers out of Reading.
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JimInGreensboro added 21:41 - Feb 17 By the way, he pronounces his name, "Burphy", at the moment.
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MisterBlue added 22:07 - Feb 17 How about giving him a cape aswell, then we can call him Super Smurf....
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chilli added 13:00 - Feb 18 I was thinking maybe an eye patch... https://www.dropbox.com/s/x8iosayj6vh94my/2015-02-16%2011.21.49.jpg?dl=0
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blueboy1981 added 17:48 - Feb 18 ........ have to correct you on that one warktheline - the word is 'pinacle' - but we all knew what you meant. Can see Murphy hitting 30 this season, he's playing now where he should be, and wanted to be - he has achieved what he has so far without anywhere near what he should be able to expect in terms of service from midfield. Let's hope this improves more over the rest of the season. With Ambrose, or JW playing regularly in midfield, the sky would be the limit for him this season. Murph' is a very good player - but you must give him what he needs for him to benefit from.

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warktheline added 18:08 - Feb 18 Modern technology blueboy, I pad has a dictionary of its own!!!!! That's my excuse and that's what I'm sticking to!
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blueboy1981 added 18:54 - Feb 18 ........ absolutely - I've had the same problem myself.
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MogwaiBlue added 19:26 - Feb 18 If you're going to correct someone Blueboy, best to check your own spelling first. Pinnacle, it's piNNacle.
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GeoffSentence added 09:02 - Feb 19
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